Miss Cellaneous

Food

Came too late for the cut smoked beef because the sausage'n meat counter closes at 8pm. Okay, fine, whatever, I thought: ( impromptu lamb stew! )! ♥

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Colleagues & Such

Did I mention that there was a fire alarm in our building when I was still on crutches? I was on the 8th floor, and the "floor ward" rather upset (as this was not a drill) - she hurried the two of us over to the staircase before you could say, "WTF ELEVATOR?"

monanotlisa: *slowly climbs down seven flights of stairs on crutches*
sandynotlisa: *grins* "Hey, look at the bright side: You're lucky you're not in a wheelchair right now."
monanotlisa: "It's you who's lucky I'm not in a wheelchair right now. Cause then you'd have to carry me."

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Fandom

BarbC & TLN talk about about the AO3 (Archive Of Our Own) wank.

rahirah: "Tangentially, there are probably many, many writers who feel, in moments of self-pitying, hormonal woe, that people only love us for our stories, and the cruel intarwebz do not appreciate us as they should, for the crystalline purity of our unique and fragile snowflake souls, nor does fandom provide us the unceasing emotional succor we so richly deserve. Ghod knows that I have felt that way upon occasion myself. But most of us generally recognize that feeling for the passive-aggressive, entitled whining that it is, and keep our damn mouths shut until it passes."

thelastgoodname: "What if a person didn't want a future in which fannish activities were recognized as legal? What if said person liked doing things that are morally and legally dubious--what if that were part of the draw? What if the illegitimacy of the act were part of why a person participated?"

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Meme

Ask me one fandom-related question in the comments. This can be fandom specific, general, or about fandom/lj stuff/fic writing/etc. in general.

Just one question, please, but it can have sub-parts.

Question can be as wacky as you want. Ask me about tv shows, characters, fanfic in general, fandom issues/meta, anything about any of my stories specifically. Whatever you want.

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1. On the outside, all that's left of my knee surgery are two tiny band-aids! Endoscopy rocks my world, and so do competent doctors (for a change).

2. Watched Shelter. Oh, wow. Wow. You must see this movie...which does not deserve the R-rating in the eyes of anyone sane and sensible, by the way. I hope with all my heart that people watch it with their teenage kids.

3. Celebrating New Year's with a few friends right here in my city, right here in the Old Town: wine bar, pub-hopping, fireworks, and a big party in some supposed "new hotspot of the Scene." Uh, whatever that is. Tomorrow, on the first day of the New Year, it's back to the parents' house again, to see my sister for three more days before she goes Down Under. Alas (for me, not for her).

May 2010 be a lot better than 2009, you guys!

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Met up with monanotmona and her boyfriend, and we strolled over four of the city's Christmas Markets. She bought gloves for her skiing vacation; I ate said fish'n chipsbread; her boyfriend enjoyed a big Bratwurst...and there was hot punch (no alcohol) and Glühwein.

Snowy Christmas Markets

We took a taxi back (that we totally didn't steal at the corner before the taxi-stand, oh no). The last pic tells you pretty clearly why the trams weren't running and the buses filled to the brim...

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It's so cold outside that the gears of my bike froze while I was riding it - in first gear (of course).

The heating's on full blast, but it's still not exactly cozy in my apartment. Let's hope hungarianeighbour, his gf, and that Rhône red can warm it up...

On the plus side, all presents are bought. Yay!

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Our Portuguese colleague's returning home. ( Bittersweetness )

( The good )

While we're at Christmas presents, hermine made me smile last Saturday because in the midst of holiday shopping, her parcel arrived...with the following sweet contents: ( Moar pics! )

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I'd told Aiko (愛子/あいこ), our Japanese colleague, three days before that this Friday Night of Office Fun* was taking place so she could get a babysitter**, and whoa, she did not just bring the rice snacks but also a bottle of sake that our way-too-cheerful huge blond Teutonic co-worker proceeded to open after we'd finished that second bottle of Portuguese wine (which, by the way, tends to be so excellent that, along with the personality of my dear colleague, it made me seriously contemplate a vacation in Portugal: The Iberian peninsula clearly has more than one culture to offer, and shame on me for not realising this earlier.)

* not as much of an oxymoron as you'd think, after all.
** I'm not a huge fan of women missing out on late(r) night socialising with the peers. I'm sure you're vastly surprised.

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Weekend was - I want to say lovely, which it totally was, but mostly, it was about food. ( At a) a conference, b) a dinner by invitation, and c) my parents' 40th wedding anniversary )

In less food-y but still family-related news: This Sunday, Mama, Papa and I sat down to play Memory, and then Sudoku at my mother's little laptop. Turns out Papa knows some mean tricks, and my mother - also a scientist, after all - may be quiet but is v. sure-footed around those numbers. Nostalgic activities: sitting at the big wooden living room table, dusk - not to mention drizzling rain, sigh - falling outside, the three of us (sans sis, sadly) with our games and conversations and little thrills of victory.

All of which reminded me of a conversation I once had with three of my uni friends who persistently argued that board games were the Official Herald of Boring Parties (With Even More Boring People). As someone who'd spent not just Sunday afternoons with the family but also many, many nights with my friends and quite a bit of tequila/vodka/other-drinks-one-only-has-when-still-under-twenty-oh-GOD playing board games obsessively cheerfully, I could not agree...but have wondered ever since.

View poll: Board Games?

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Back from thethirdmona's birthday party, and in lieu of cheerful babblings about the folks (cool) and the food (hot) [and also the other way 'round], I'll just share one of the gifts with you:



You see - or, well; you don't! - this one blinks when you press its bottom: yellow, green, blue, and red. Disco Duck doesn't advertise.

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Friend, food, and drink: generally a winning combination. In this case, the WIN! holds true in two instances.

1.
I don't know why or how, but in the year(?!) I hadn't seen her, I'd forgotten Anne is a fan! ( The joys of re-connecting, fannage in Germany, and also a sidenote on the Munich murders )

2.
The (fresh and divine) soup kitchen I often go to for lunch was closed, however, so Anne & I had to find another place. Where they admittedly served huge portions of tapas - we could have easily shared two, I think, at roughly five Euro each.

If only it had been good too. ( Details of FOOD. Also, PICS )

3.
Now, having returned after everything and hanging at the parents' (who are away visiting friends: sturmfrei!), I'm drinking Hakutsuru Draft Sake, which is fine, if not exciting, taste-wise. If you do have sake recs, bring them on.

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Tomorrow's my birthday party. Bummer, I'd thought, I should have sent the invitation before my US vacation - with only one week to go, no one will have time. Then I thought, Just as well quality, not quantity!

...only that almost there were still quite a few who could come, after all. Which puts me in a bit of a quandary: wine I have (you are not surprised), beer I will get (German, standard, Bitburger was suggested).

That said, what food should I serve? ( Numbers, musings )

But apart from that? Any simple, no-cook (but bake is fine) foods good for a party?

Poll #1453267 Party Food Suggestions
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

Oh yeah -

You could/should/might wish to make...

Made it to Los Angeles (and am quite taken with Virgin America, I must say). Alas, had to say good-bye to ascian3 and sleipnirrr, while pukajen had to leave spontaneously to Further Her Career. Her bed remains awesome, though.

One last glance back at San Francisco. Not married to Lot, after all.

Part Eight

...and now I have eaten almost an entire 7.20 oz bag of Skittles. Mmh, high-fructose corn syrup.

monanotlisa: Notice how our days have themes?
ascian3: As in?
monanotlisa: Yesterday, we went hiking in mountain forests, where they are furry, tasty mammals - and we went and two of us had steaks. Today, we went to see the ocean, walking cliffs and resting on a secluded beach - and we'll be having sushi.
ascian3: *deadpan* It is good to have order in your life.

Photos of cliffs and the ocean, sea birds and the sky, anyone? Also, aforementioned sushi and, of course, fab friends.

Part Seven

We capped the evening by drinking yet more sake and watching The Voyage Home, the fourth Star Trek movie (or, as the fans would say, ST:IV), which was AWESOME. See old-skool Spock icon. ♥ If you care, this right here is not just the best ST:TOS Spock icon collection, but among the best icon sets I've ever seen.

Thanks for answering the poll, y'all who did! & :-)

Some hiking & dining photos. I was so hungry I actually did NOT take a photo of the food in front of me: steeeeeeeak!

Part Six

This time, there are even gratuitous comments.

Part Five

Time for a poll, people, the regular one.

Poll #1442393 One of the basic philosophical questions, right?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 37

I am here, reading this blog, because

I just made pancakes with fresh fruit salad, sleipnirrr is baking them on the griddle (with butter, mmh), and ascian3 will come up to eat 'em for our little brunch together. Asian Art Museum after that; all of us want to see the Photographic Memories exhibition.

Ascian, Sleipnir, ( here's the icon you wanted yesterday night in the hot-tub )

Lounging on ascian3's sofa after a lazy day of out-hanging, wine-tasting, and stuff-shopping. V. soon there shall be hot-tubbing. Life = good.

Photos of the last couple of days, anyone? 'tis San Francisco, with and without whiskeypants, meeting darcydodo and livredor plus friends, and now, see above, Ascian & sleipnirrr.

Part Two - open

Part Three

Part Four

Every time I post another vacation photo, God kills a kitten.

Good times in San Francisco and with thelastgoodname. They were, among other places, had in this Vietnamese restaurant.

( Obligatory food photos that might just make you hungry )

Now, I'm lying in whiskeypants's sofa-turned-guest bed. We both met bar_butterfly, enjoyed the first affordable pizza I've ever seen on this continent, and had a sales clerk elaborate on the values of six of the eclectic dozens of beer the store offered: drinks for our later viewing of Kill Bill 2 and Pan's Labyrinth, which is utterly gorgeous and haunting like few other movies. Watch it, just beware: this is not pure fantasy. Civil war, fascist dictatorships, and how this shapes and destroys human beings constitute the story, not a mere backdrop.

Speaking of society and history? grimorie spoke about the death of Corazon 'Cory' Aquino, the 11th president of the Philippines in her lj today - of the funeral, but mostly the love of the people for her. (Click her name; she's crossposting.) thelastgoodname has a post up that deals with college football and not-so-isolated racism.

If you check out mcshep_peace, you'll find an interview with me.

Yes, I'm crazy enough to post it even though I am dead on my feet after flying from Minneapolis to California after the WriterCon closing ceremonies and jotting it down at the airport. I'm safe and sound at thelastgoodname's now, though. ♥

Sitting in the WriterCon Suite right here in the Radisson in Minneapolis, after two panels and a sunny trip to the Farmer's Market with three fabulous girls: Obviously, I made it out of there to the US. Take a 9 1/2 hour flight to Georgia, a mad dash through Immigration (who kindly told me that I was in the US "for business reasons," because "all conferences are commercial"), a 2-hour flight to Minnesota, an easy and pleasant Minneapolis public transport trip thanks to soundingsea's illustrated instructions, and voilà.

( WriterCon, Day One: Friday )

As I told e. in a comment, we ended up watching no tv at all but, as recorded and DVD'd by him, 13 Going On 30. Yes, slightly shady messages from a feminist viewpoint, but we were both still oddly heart-warmed and all. (The other choices were the first part of the Bourne trilogy - nope, haven't seen any of them yet; yes, I like my rock - and Freaky Friday featuring another secret crush o' mine).

( Lazy Sunday night w/ friend )

( Fandomsecret mocking. )