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07:56 am
jongibbs
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Christmas TV in the olden days
Merry Christmas to one and all!
Back in the mid 1970s I was still a mere slip of a lad, living at home in England with my parents and six siblings. With only one TV in the house, there were often disputes about what to watch – even though in those days there were only three channels to choose from.
As you might imagine, the Christmas viewing schedule caused more arguments than most. However, there were some things we all wanted to watch. On top of that list each year was The Morecambe & Wise Christmas show.
I don’t think they’re well known over here in the USA, but back in the UK Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise were household names, and rightly so. Every Christmas, a procession of famous actors, actresses and celebrities of the time took part in their hilarious sketches or appeared in one of the truly awful ten-minute plays ‘what’ Ernie wrote.
Decades later, through the magic of YouTube, I found some of my favorites. A few haven’t stand the test of time, but many are just as funny as when I first saw them, over thirty years ago. As proof that it’s not just nostalgia talking, my teenage son often quotes from them.
Here are my three favorites:
Although they were firm friends with singer, Des O'Connor, offstage, Eric & Ernie constantly joked about the him in their TV shows and live performances, which made his 'surprise' appearance below even more funny. I loved the way they improvised when someone fluffed a line or went off-track a little.
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If you're feeling flat over the next few days, I guarantee any one of these three clips will put a smile back on your face.
How about you?
What TV shows do you remember from your youth?
Current Mood:  happy
Tags: humor, morecambe and wise
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03:01 am
kristine_smith
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From Twitter 12-24-2009
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
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01:44 am
dr_phil_physics
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The Reality of Pandora (Spoiler Free)
In An Earlier Time
Back in the summer of 2001, before the world changed, a movie came out which threatened to change everything about moviemaking. Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within was not a hit in the U.S. The plot wasn't American enough -- too Japanese for most people's taste. And though Final Fantasy had been a huge hit video game franchise, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within seemingly had no connection to the characters and plots of all the FF game versions. So you can't even rank it amongst the legions of failed video game tie-in movies.
Watch any of the dreadful Sci Fi Channel (now the sissy SyFy) monster movies and you can see way-too-obvious CGI pasted into the live action. Unnatural movements, obviously faked. CGI sucked in most applications.
But Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within changed the game -- they shot the whole thing in CGI. Used motion capture on the actors, wrote Physics programs to handle the movement of fabric and even modeled 50,000 independent hairs on the head. Brilliantly, they made the "monsters" these luminescent transparent phantoms and featured holographic control and display systems that hung suspended glowing in the air. Seamless between humans, sets, technology and creatures.
I'm one of the few who loved Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. They should've reshot the earliest footage, because the hand and facial movements hadn't been nailed down as well. But it wasn't bad, not bad at all. I especially appreciated the virtual cameras and lenses they used -- they even had lens flare and aperture rings, to say nothing of reflections and depth of field.
And it's been for me the gold standard in realistic computer generated moviemaking. Until now...
Folks, the game has changed. Completely. Forever. Avatar is the most amazing movie. It's blow-you-away where-were-you-when-it-came-out like seeing first-run 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, or Raiders of the Lost Ark, Titanic, The Lord of the Rings or (for me at least) Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
Everybody early on wanted to complain that James Cameron stole this or that story for Avatar. It's Ferngully. It's Dances With Wolves... with Smurfs. It's Dragonriders of Pern, it's The Word For World Is Forest. I have to say, Cameron himself acknowledges Dances With Wolves as an inspiration, but much as I said for the movie Moon earlier this year, "But could we just please talk about Avatar as a Science Fiction movie of its own?"
Because anything less at first blush does Avatar a huge disfavor. Sure, it's James Cameron, which means maybe it's heavy handed in parts and the script doesn't feature the most sparkling of dialogue. But we got the same sort of whining before Titanic came out. You know, the way too expensive break the budget $200 million epic where we all know what is going to happen and has a sappy love story. A love story I might add drew a lot of people in to the point where, about halfway through, suddenly this iceberg intruded on the story and it's OMG it's an iceberg what's gonna happen now?!
No, really, Avatar in IMAX 3D is that good. And more.
Avatar IMAX 3D [PG-13]
Celebration North IMAX Theatre, Monday 21 Dec 2009, 3pm
I first saw To Fly in one of the first IMAX theatres at the Air and Space Museum in Washington DC when it was new. The huge screen and sharp picture put you right into a hot air balloon -- and in the cockpit of the Blue Angels. We've seen some feature movies converted to IMAX, including a couple of Harry Potter installments, the last of which had 15 minutes in IMAX 3D. And I've seen a couple of IMAX 3D movies, including the spectacular and REAL Space Station 3D. Nor is this James Cameron's first foray into IMAX 3D, that goes to James Cameron's Ghosts of the Abyss.
In our IMAX theatre, the sweet spot for me is dead center, rows 3 or 4. We were able to get dead center, row 2, which meant bending the neck a little more craning around to see everything. But this was not a problem.
Avatar is everything that IMAX 3D has ever promised. Yes, it's being shown in regular 3D and 2D, and if you don't have a local IMAX, go see the Real 3D version, I'm sure. 3D has been a gimmick in far too many films. And I know people who've complained of vertigo in both IMAX theatres and 3D in any format. But 3D is being used here to create a world, not shock you. The opening, inside the cylinder of a massive starship, seemed a little ViewMaster 3D to me -- not sure if it was the setting or just getting the eyes adjusted to the 3D or whether they screwed up. But after a minute, you forget that it's a gimmick. Because you are THERE.
And CGI creatures, worlds and motion capture "people"? Look, I used to tell people that if Titanic cost $200 million to make, then at least for once every penny ended up on the screen. Well, if Avatar cost $300 million to make, then you really have to understand that every penny has ended up on the screen. I'd say "unbelievable", but that's wrong. It's totally BELIEVABLE.
I suspect there are fighter pilots who will weep at never being able to truly "plug in and fly". And the virtual camerawork that goes along with flying is unprecedented. I have never seen anyone take the Gundum/giant fighting suit concept and make it workable. Until now. Totally ramped up beyond the wonderful loaders he had in Aliens. I've never seen anyone create a complete ecosystem to the point that entire vistas had to have been created totally on the computer.
The CGI and live action filming is seamlessly interwoven. There are no breaks, no lines, no errors in lighting. Once, in a long shot of Na'vi scampering up a "vine", I thought the movements looked a little too Gollum for my taste, but though they forget about it most of the time, Pandora is supposed to be a lower gravity world than Earth. With that opening 3D scene mentioned earlier, that makes TWO shots where I questioned the filmmaking. Two. In a 162 minute epic. Compare that to the lovingly detailed list of glitches we all saw in the original Star Wars. (grin)
After the initial introduction, you soon tend to forget that the Na'vi are ten feet tall -- until you see them next to those puny, pitiful humans in the air masks.
What does this computer and 3D immersion get you? It gets you pulsating floating seeds which are so lovely and soft you can feel them. It gets an undercover of flowering plants which you can almost smell the sickeningly overpowering scent. It gets you creatures full of teeth and too many legs and eyes, which though alien, you can connect with. Hell, it even gets you 3D snapshots on the wall, which pan as you walk past them. This is the future.
Pandora is a real place. I have seen it.
For those of you who don't want a tree-hugging eco movie or some dewy eyed love story, fear not. Like Titanic, Cameron knows how to mix types and show you an action flick. As far as military hardware goes, besides walking fighting suits, he's got these wonderful future-gen helicopters. Sure, the body is not that much beyond a Blackhawk, but the twin ducted fan (or at least guarded) contra-rotating blades screams high tech functionality.
And Cameron knows how to do big. Whether its starships, bases, strip mines, earthmoving equipment, trees, creatures. Explosions. Remember Cameron put real wood beams and columns in his Titanic interiors just so they'd break and splinter properly. The man knows how to turn solid wood into chunks and splinters.
This isn't some campy Ewoks versus Imperial Stormtroopers fight. This is deadly serious.
If I had one complaint, it's that you tend to forget that Pandora is described as sort of a Hell -- and though every once in a while you see a shimmer of air as a human goes through an airlock into the world of Pandora, you don't always remember the oppressive heat. And even that isn't a huge complaint. Why? Because for the Na'vi it's home. They're comfortable in it. It's not like taking an Eskimo and throwing them into the Amazon rainforest for them. Just those puny fragile humans.
You become one with the Na'vi. They are real. I've seen them.
And I want to see them again. Soon. Just to look around this world.
And you know what? It'll still be worth every penny of the extra fare IMAX 3D ticket price.
Highest Recommendation
Dr. Phil
PS - I urge you to read Jim Wright's excellent essay Avatar: Simple Astounding (Spoiler Free) on Stonekettle Station.
PPS - Wikipedia's article mentions that James Cameron has a trio of scripts for an Avatar trilogy. Just saying.
Current Mood:  ecstatic
Tags: avatar, movies, reviews, science fiction
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12:07 am
marycatelli
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Joy to the world
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.
( Read more... )
Tags: days
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11:10 pm
marycatelli
[Link] |
Good Christian men, rejoice
Good Christian men, rejoice with heart and soul, and voice;
Give ye heed to what we say: News! News! Jesus Christ is born today;
Ox and ass before Him bow; and He is in the manger now.
Christ is born today! Christ is born today!
Good Christian men, rejoice, with heart and soul and voice;
Now ye hear of endless bliss: Joy! Joy! Jesus Christ was born for this!
He has opened the heavenly door, and man is blest forevermore.
Christ was born for this! Christ was born for this!
Good Christian men, rejoice, with heart and soul and voice;
Now ye need not fear the grave: Peace! Peace! Jesus Christ was born to save!
Calls you one and calls you all, to gain His everlasting hall.
Christ was born to save! Christ was born to save!
Tags: days
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06:01 pm
grrm
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/91237832/7059164) [Link] |
Merry Christmas
Here's hoping all my friends and readers have a merry Christmas.
And you other people too.
Current Mood:  happy
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03:09 pm
jaylake
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/54542688/3601814) [Link] |
[books] All you do is eat the pages...
On a Day Jobbe break, headed for the post office and mailed out about 40 Pinion ARCs. Receipt is longer than I am tall, totalling well over $100. Came home with a box to find I now have a big pile of Death of a Starship. The total count of volumes here at Nuevo Rancho Lake does not seem to have been reduced.
Is the universe balancing its books?
Tags: books, funny, pinion, starship
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03:01 pm
jaylake
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/94473972/3601814) [Link] |
[cancer] A little bit more on sex and chemo
Several further email exchanges with the oncology nurse provided some interesting clarifications. I was advised to be careful about "sloppy" kissing. Also to note that tears, saliva, urine, et cetera would all have traces of the drugs.
5-FU, part of my FOLFOX chemo cocktail, interferes with RNA transcription, and is notably teratogenic, i.e., capable of generating horrendous birth defects. So I wrote back and asked how much of this precaution is diligence to avoid conception with this crap in play, and how much of it is related to drug half life and breakdown products. I pointed out that I have had my vasectomy, I don't bareback anyone who is fertile in her own right, so the odds of a defective pregnancy approach those required for divine intervention.
She wrote me back and commented that she thought that most of the science around chemotherapy and sex was about teratogenecity.
I understand this from a liability point of view. I understand this from a conservative medicine point of view. I do not want to introduce cytotoxins to my loved ones through sex, kissing or even excessive sweating. I truly will be the Toxic Avenger, as will anyone who goes through this process. I will not be cowboying my way through my intimate life against all medical advice.
But I find it amusing, and frustrating, that the focus is so overwhelmingly on fertility and its risks that there doesn't seem to be a clear-eyed view, or available information, on the chemo risks in nonfertile sexual environments. Which would of course apply to gay/lesbian couples, the elderly, and anyone of reproductive age who's been medically or surgically rendered infertile. That has to be a fair amount of people, all working under this fertility management regimen.
Curious.
Tags: cancer, health, personal, sex
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04:56 pm
kristine_smith
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/39213585/2471211) [Link] |
Happy Holidays, Everybody!
Here's to flights that aren't delayed, and biscuits that don't burn
Relatives that don't aggravate, and gift clothes that fit
It's gawdawful dreary here. Dark now. Raining. The snow has melted to slush. Really heavy slush. The pound-per-cubic-inch grade of slush.
But still.
Happy Holidays!
Current Mood:  chipper
Tags: holidays
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03:45 pm
j_cheney
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/69228834/10024831) [Link] |
Icing.
A couple of hours of sleet followed by several hours of snow = Mass Panic and Mayhem in Oklahoma.
We have a very slick ice layer and white-out conditions, so all three major networks have been doing road condition coverage ALL DAY so far. ALL DAY. We gave up and put in White Christmas, the last of our Christmas marathon movies. (We already did The Christmas Story, A Christmas Carol (Patrick Stewart Version) and I's a Wonderful Life.)
Fortunately this isn't freezing rain, the bane of power lines everywhere, so we still have power. Pie-making is about to commence.
Current Mood:  cold
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03:28 pm
dr_phil_physics
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It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas 'Round Hereabouts
Mmmm -- Smells Good
There has been much baking the last couple of weeks. The latest projects have been for us:
Over on Facebook, Mrs. Dr. Phil had posted:
It's been a busy morning, and I'm liking the results! -- Mother-in-law's poppyseed coffee cake recipe, mince pie with pastry made with vodka, and an entire stollen just for us!
and
Plenty to share -- c'mon over!
Naturally I had to reply:
No, no! It's way too crowded here. No room. And, uh, the roads are going to be icy. You'll slide off the road trying to get here. Really. And, uh,you'd never make it up our LONG ICY TERRIFYING driveway. Yeah. You, uh, better stay home. And leave the poppyseed, mince pie and stollen for me... for us, I mean! -- Dr. Phil
The cats, however, get nothing, NOTHING I tell you, of our lovely holiday baked goods.
I've suspected our well water as part of the reason why Mrs. Dr. Phil has had problems with pie crust the last few years. So the vodka pie crust trick probably provides a solvent suitable to getting everything to line up right.
The Usual Updates
The coming weather hasn't yet arrived. The temp is hovering around 31°F, but it feels icy cold outside -- must be damp. And with the oven on earlier, the thermostat is just sure the house is warm enough... not.
Gas, which I haven't ranted about in a while, has had fairly steady prices the last month, staying around $2.57.9/gal for regular -- no sudden jump for Christmas. Maybe they'll save it for a New Year's increase. (grin)
Dr. Santa
Current Mood:  complacent
Tags: christmas, facebook, food, gas prices, good stuff, holidays, midwest, weather, west michigan
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02:52 pm
douglascohen
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/45753729/9947615) [Link] |
Movie: Avatar
Against my better judgment, I ended up going to see this. Me and a bunch of friends made a run into NYC late last night, to catch it in IMAX 3-D. On a visual level, this is an absolutely stunning movie. That's all the nice stuff I'm going to say about this one. This movie is LOOOOONG, and it felt even longer. It runs 2:40. After an hour and fifteen minutes this movie already felt LOOOOONG, and I still had to get through an hour and a half.
Shoot me now.
Someone needs to sit James Cameron in front of a dictionary and have him copy the definition of "overindulgent."
Tags: movies/tv
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09:30 am
scarlettina
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/58782468/1314113) [Link] |
Christmas Eve and all that jazz
Boy, when the sun returns, the sun returns! It's a bright, sunny day here in Seattle. The light is shining hard and silver, despite the cold. The sky is pale blue feathered with wispy clouds.
I have errands to run today, cats and gifts to attend to, recipes to research, and groceries to acquire. I also have Deep Thoughts brewing. There is discussion on my flist about God and faith, about illness, about whose holiday is whose, and so on. There may be a post later provoked by any or all of these items. Or I might get lazy and just vicariously enjoy someone else's holiday. I know that within the next 36 hours, there will be gift-giving, cooking, lots of food, possibly a movie, and the company of most excellent humans and cats (any other company will be serendipitous). Seems like a good way to spend the next hours.
Also, there will be a haircut next week (an appointment has been made--at last! at last!). The long hair has been fun, but I've been feeling a lot like Witch Hazel lately and need to fix that in a hurry.
Merry Christmas to those who celebrate. General merriness to everyone else!
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03:00 am
sfwa
[sfwa_admin]
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/91053092/21136186) [Link] |
Quick Updates for 2009-12-24
Member News
Mirrored from SFWA | Comment at SFWA
Tags: caren gussoff, news, sfwa blog, twitter, victoria strauss
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11:36 am
ellen_datlow
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/57535897/8227324) [Link] |
Best Horror of the Year volume one makes Fear.net list
Top 9 of '09
Tags: best horror of the year, volume one
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05:55 am
jaylake
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/92749905/3601814) [Link] |
[cancer|religion] Atheism, cancer and me
I've received various comments on my cancer in a religious context here and there. Almost all entirely well meant, and some well stated. As I mentioned yesterday, even my clinic advises coping through my faith.
Except I have no faith, in the sense that they mean the term. I am an atheist.
I have faith in many things: Gravity. Entropy. The sheer perversity of the universe. Human nature. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) the_child. The love of calendula_witch and so many other people in my life. The healing power of a good pizza. The glory of sex. Tomorrow's sunrise. The value of a good story.
But those are all small-f "faith." And I am a small-a "atheist." Low Church Atheism, I call it in my snarkier moments. No more than daveraines is out to convert me am I out to deconvert him. I firmly believe (have faith?) in our First Amendment freedom of religion. You can believe in YHWH, God, Zeus, Allah, Zoroaster, Gaea, the Flying Spaghetti Monster or the Verruca Gnome for all it matters to me. They're all equally provable assertions, which is to say absolutely unprovable. Your Faith is as important to me as your favorite color. Which is to say, if I like you, I care that you care, but the thing you believe in has zero impact on the real world.
Basically, if you're a person of Faith, unless you're a pagan or a polytheist, I only believe in one less god than you do. Really, we do have a lot in common.
The fact that you believe can have tremendous impact. Viz the Crusades, the Inquisition, the World Trade Center attacks, imprecatory prayer for the death of Senator Byrd. But that's not God talking, that's the insecurities and needs and beliefs of millions of individual people who look to God for comfort, rationale or revenge. Or something. I don't know, I'm not them.
What I do know is that religious belief is strongly privileged in virtually every modern society except some interpretations of the Socialist-Communist spectrum. Our own First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion, but not freedom from religion, which I think would have been far more foresighted of the Founding Fathers.
Faith can reinforce certainty, until we get the lunacy that is modern conservative movement, where politics, culture, a specific swathe of Protestantism and a whole lot of white resentment have been braided together to form a lash that scourges our body politic, sabotages our culture, and makes the United States the laughingstock of the world. Without the strand of Faith in the braid, the whole structure of the post-Nixonian Republican party would have been vastly different, and the world quite possibly would not have suffered the presidencies of Bush the Younger.
Likewise, Faith consistently privileges behaviors that would neurotic or psychotic in any other circumstance. Or simply criminal. From Catholic abuse scandals to snake handling and glossolalia to honor killings, people of faith behave over and over again in manners that would have this atheist locked up, and rightly so. And because it's part of their Faith, their consciences are undisturbed and their lives are called good.
Tell me again why I need Faith? For anything?
So what we have is a gigantic social structure that seems to be as old as human consciousness. It clearly fulfills a vast and fantastic need in the human spirit. And yes, I have a spirit, too. Anyone who's ever read much of my fiction knows that I am on a spiritual quest of my own. I constantly interrogate many of the same questions that Faith is supposed to interrogate. What is my purpose? How am I to act? Why is there good and evil in the world? To whom are my higher loyalties owed? Who is responsible?
Being a rank empiricist and good-hearted skeptic, I can only look for those answers within myself. Sometimes I feel like Jacob wrestling with the angel, in a world innocent of the corrupting touch of God.
I don't lack Faith. To say that implies that Faith is a requirement, or a default condition of being human. I simply don't find any cause to have Faith, any more than I find any cause to believe in the influence of retrograde Mercury on my daily life. And for precisely the same reason. If I lack Faith, I lack it the same way I lack my third hand. It was never a necessary part of me in the first place.
(As an aside, I was raised in Faith, during my early years. My grandfather Lake was a preacher in the Disciples of Christ. I still have a shelf of Bibles and concordances, some of them inscribed with praise for my studies and my knowledge. I even attended missionary schools in my youth. My views of Faith aren't from a lack of exposure, trust me.)
All of which is why I am an atheist. Ultimately because I see no reason not to be, except wishful thinking and the spiritual yearning that all human beings share. Wishful thinking I can dispatch with a wave of my adult hand. Spiritual yearning I address through literature, writing, discourse and thought. Perhaps you could argue I am my own god, but I don't think I'd ever make that claim seriously.
Now to cancer.
As I said yesterday, a well-meaning acquaintance recently told me, "I just don't understand how you can do this without faith in God." I'm not sure if he was referring to my suffering, or the real and significant confrontation with mortality that this disease represents. Perhaps both. I didn't ask, because I like him enough not to want to communicate my sense of insult, and I don't like him so much to want the effort of working through that together.
As an atheist, my simple response might be, "What does God have to do with this?" If God, in the Evangelical Christian sense (his perspective), is real, I could only blame Him for my disease. He is said to act directly in our lives, sending red Mercedes to the deserving and hurricanes to punish the gay. Retail religion, I suppose, and I got handed a rotten apple here at the divine service counter.
Do I need God to blame? No. I don't really need anyone or anything to blame, but I suppose if I do, it's myself and evolution. Colon cancer isn't explicitly a lifestyle cancer, like smoking-related lung cancer, but possibly if I'd eaten a lot less fried food and red meat, and lot more fresh fruits and vegetables, I could have postponed this. I don't carry the known genetic markers (we've checked, and also I have no recent family history). Evolution, well, cancer is a cell division error, fundamentally, a disease of self-repair and reproduction. And what is evolution but cell division accompanied by recombinancy? Welcome to the universe, mister vertebrate. Here's your long odds.
Do I need God to comfort me? No. What comfort would an invisible, unprovable assertion bring me? I have family, friends, lovers, co-workers, readers, fans, and random strangers who offer me far more support and comfort than I know what to do with. No one can reach into my side and still the twanging of the nerves in my ribs right now, not God, not calendula_witch, not my doctors. I can only cope, and work through it. No one can reach into my bloodstream and still the tiny assassin cells that lurk there, waiting to colonize my liver and lungs, except my doctors with their arsenal of drugs. My comfort lies in living, pushing forward, struggling, and perhaps eventually dying with some grace and meaning.
My life does have intent, and purpose. Cancer has focused that to a point beyond pain. Some people find intent and purpose through Faith, and unto them I say, yea, verily, go forth and do what raises your spirit. I cannot see anything in Faith except the barking of carnies and the psychological needs of a lonely ape long lost from his East African plains, and so I find my intent and purpose in myself, in my circle of love and friendship, and ultimately in these words.
Am I richer for it? Who's to say? But I'm happy all by myself, without God. In some ways, happier than I've ever been, right now, with two holes in my left side and four holes in my right side and a medical appliance poking against my throat and some dreadful poisons two weeks in my future.
Are you happy? With or without God? For your sake, I hope like hell it doesn't take cancer for you to answer that question.
Tags: calendula, cancer, child, health, personal, religion
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08:31 am
jongibbs
[Link] |
So what are you hoping to get for Christmas?
I already know most of what I'm getting for Christmas. I'm particularly looking forward to unwrapping Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals and listening to Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds on CD (something I haven't heard in over twenty years).
How about you?
What are you getting (or hoping to get) for Christmas?
Current Mood:  excited
Tags: christmas presents, jeff wayne, terry pratchett
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07:19 am
j_cheney
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/46512153/10024831) [Link] | I woke up at 6 this morning for no apparent reason.
We went to a couple of "open houses" last night. I ate two cookies total. I was good.
I am working on my Nebula noms. Boy, I have a lot of stuff to read. I feel inadequate to vote at all, but I'm consoling myself with the fact that most SFWA members probably haven't read every story out there either. Surely not...
Today, apple-topped cheesecake and cherry pie.
Current Mood:  sleepy
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04:59 am
jaylake
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/40520529/3601814) [Link] |
[photos] Your Thursday moment of zen
Your Thursday moment of zen.
View from Going-to-the-Sn Road in Glacier National Park, Montana. © 2006, 2009 Joseph E. Lake, Jr.
This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Tags: montana, photos, zen
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04:49 am
jaylake
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/93575741/3601814) [Link] |
[links] Link salad waits for the fat man to fly
Don't forget the latest caption contest voting poll
daveraines on my cancer, from a Christian perspective — Dave's a pastor whom I like and respect a great deal.
E-Book Pricing: Attack of the Consultants — Andrew Wheeler is snarky (and interesting) about the book market. I especially like his observation about the limits of competition. It's really not a zero sum game.
Ring Shadowplay on a Saturn Moon — Something to make you smile, from Bad Astronomy.
Honda develops a motorized unicycle — (Thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) chriswjohnson.)
Imprecatory prayer — And people wonder why I'm an atheist. In truth, not because there are religious nuts; there are plenty of non-religious nuts. I do feel accurate in observing that religion privileges many kinds of nuttery that would be diagnosable outside that context. Though I do love the notion of God as an inept assassin. (Thanks to garyomaha.)
?otD: How do you like your turkey?
12/24/2009
Body movement: 30 minutes on stationary bike
Hours slept: 7.5
This morning's weigh-in: 225.0
Currently reading: Finch by Jeff VanderMeer
Tags: books, cancer, contests, cool, links, personal, politics, polls, publishing, religion, science, tech, videos
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05:57 am
jongibbs
[Link] |
The NORAD Santa tracker is now online
The NORAD Santa tracker is now online.
Everyone's favorite delivery guy has left the North Pole. If you and yours want to follow Big Red's journey around the globe, just follow this Google Earth link for all kinds of video updates and festive, feel good, fun.
Santa's on his way. Yay! 
Current Mood: excited
Tags: christmas, norad track santa
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03:01 am
kristine_smith
[Link] |
From Twitter 12-23-2009
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
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01:05 am
dr_phil_physics
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/55627850/6945788) [Link] |
Christmas Plus Or Minus A Day
The Good News
The company we briefly had at the beginning of the week made it back towards Chicago on Tuesday. Not Wednesday. Because by Wednesday the route to Chicago late in the day was a mass of pink on The Weather Channel -- and that meant freezing rain and slush. Ugh.
"Biggest Christmas Storm In Eighteen Years"
Or so I read from someone in Wisconsin on Facebook. Parts of Wisconsin are expected to get two feet (or more) of snow. If you're doing a Wisconsin Christmas, I hope you're already there.
Sliding Into Ho-Ho-Ho
Meanwhile, in West Michigan on this side of Lake Michigan we're on Winter Watches for tonight, with some freezing rain passing through. But Christmas Eve during the day should still be clear -- Christmas Eve Eve started out with bright sun and clear skies. Then from 5pm Christmas Eve to 5pm Christmas we're going to get more freezing rain and crap, changing to rain and warming up to 37°F on Saturday. So it'll be slick and treacherous here, and our driveway will be a wet sheet of ice. And then it'll melt off before the next snow? Maybe?
We're on the southern end of the storm and are not supposed to get the big snow in Milwaukee. That's what they say. We'll see.
Tuesday and Wednesday next week should be clear. Maybe.
Anyway, we're not going anywhere on Christmas. Let it frain. Let it drizzle. Let it freeze.
Dr. Phil
Current Mood: relaxed
Tags: allendale, chicago, christmas, holidays, michigan, midwest, weather, wisconsin
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09:39 pm
kristine_smith
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/37460385/2471211) [Link] |
Whither weather
We're under an Ice Storm Warning until tomorrow afternoon. Less than half an inch expected, but it doesn't take much.
Hates ice. Hates it.
Current Mood:  April, please?
Tags: weather
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06:32 pm
jaylake
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/96292604/3601814) [Link] |
[cancer] More sex, and other mysteries
Just spoke to the chemo nurse. I have been advised that due to me being on 5-FU (Fluorouracil), condoms are absolutely required for any relevant sexual act during chemo and for three months afterward. The drugs involved are too disruptive to risk passing on to my sex partners via my ejaculate. Also due to my immunocompromised status, I cannot perform oral sex without a dental dam, as the consequences of me contracting a bacterial infection are severe. This is not surprising, but it does not please me.
In other news, thanks to a prompting from a friend of calendula_witch, I queried about EMLA, an anaesthetic cream that's applied to the skin above the chest port an hour or so prior to the needle being set. The nurse said, "Well, that's a good idea. It will cut down quite a bit on your incidental pain." Which made me wonder why they didn't prescribe it proactively. She also indicated that I can continue physical therapy while under chemo, with no particular cautions. So my shoulder will progress further.
In other news, I'm mulling a post on cancer, stress and my atheism. It seems to need to be discussed — even my clinic is advising me to support my spiritual side through my faith, which seems to considerably privilege religious belief. I'm not planning to make an issue of it there, not at all, just wanting to answer the implied question, which was explicitly voiced by an acquaintance who recently commented, "I just don't understand how you can do this without faith in God."
That definitely deserves a thoughtful response.
Tags: calendula, cancer, health, personal, religion, sex
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