The smithereens!

the calm

2009-12-19T18:52:37Z

Having handmade things around the house is really a gift. My ceramics class will run out on Monday, and I brought most of my pots home.
I spread them about my room - some on the coffee table, some holding my tea, others - holding my stuff.
Stuff invades and engulfs. Safety pins beget more safety pins. Hair bands sneak off into a dark corner and add to their brood.
Now, there is a box to contain them.
There's at least a dozen pieces and not a single one is perfect, but they all seem to make sense to me now, their imperfections have a reason.
I feel peace.

Be well in the new year, everybody. Make things, break things. Make mistakes, enjoy them, and learn from them.

my day as a guinea pig

2009-04-17T02:11:13Z

So, to make sure I'd actually be back in business after this conga line of knacks and twinges, I started tracking my diet again.

Me being me, of course I have a neat little piece of software for that; and, software being software, it remembers what I ate when I've had to track my diet last. Things have changed - I neither cook as much or for as many people, but some things remain - I'm still consistently overkilling the sodium. No surprise, really - I love sour, salty and spicy things far more than one's usual kryptonite package of fats and sweets.

But out of curiosity, innocent curiosity, I've decided to live one day with as little sodium as possible - no cheese, no lox, no baked goods, no Tabasco, no salad dressing. I'm only allowing myself 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt for lentils (half of which I already had) and possibly, baked potatoes on top of the sodium already dissolved in tap water and dairy products (170 milligrams in a cup of plain yogurt, yep). My first day as a guinea pig hasn't seen me do very much differently - same bowl of oatmeal for breakfast (1.5 cup oats, 1 cup oat bran, 1.5 cup of milk, 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal, 0.5 cup hot water and one tablespoon of each honey and sunflower seeds), same cup of yogurt, same apple, same ocean of tea + 1 cup of cooked lentils for lunch.

So far I feel... very dizzy.

Not the same sort of zoning-out drowsiness I'd get from NSAIDs - I do think I can function mentally and I am hoping to get something done today. Nevertheless, this is puzzling to me - I remember how great I felt those many years ago when I parted with fast food, but this..? Perhaps the amount of tea I drink was evening out my overconsumption of salt - you know, those vices that walk hand in hand?

And now without the dubious benefit of that great cellular pressure regulator - sodium, I get to feel like a water balloon. Sweet...

If I do manage to get through this Day of the Guinea Pig and not faint say, on my way from the library, sum everything up and come up under par, I'll try to do this as a long-term project.

As one of my professors liked to say "Are most of your rats still alive? Good! You may continue the experiment". most, I love that, don't you?

5.30 Come dinnertime, I'm no longer drowsy, but still spacey, and, as opposed to earlier, extremely hungry. Hmm... As images of food float merrily around my head and make tweety noises, I'm torn between going to the market, acquiring, some oh I don't know, swiss chard, mustard greens, habaneros, sage, parsnips, jicama; and cooking them -- dreamy pause -- or just eating whatever's left of my lentils and contemplate beet salad (don't knock it till you try it, son).

Or take two fukitol on an empty stomach with eight ounces of water and go to the library, where none of these tough choices exist...

No, I already know where that gets me.

7.14 Food? Yes? No? Maybe?? Kind of???!!! case in point:
This is me, I'm the rabbit, and yes, I do love carrots this much. I am a hungry monster.
Come on, you and I both know I couldn't have put that ^^ under the cut, too cute.
Times are tough, I hope you're well.
-- w

for the masses... and anyone else

2009-02-01T17:02:02Z

Is it wrong to ask a person of color if something is racist?

On one hand, it's better to ask than just take a wild guess and do.
On the other - it constitutes an assumption, and we all know where we get with those.

What do you think, f-list?

In defence of Rafa

2009-01-26T09:44:30Z

You know, I often feel that way too.
Like I want to tell the world exactly what I think about it, not sparing any adjectives.
Do I tell anyone about it? Ah...
Well, there's the difference - I'm just some girl and Rafa is the Liverpool manager - somebody actually listens to him.
So Rafa's rant ends up in the papers, causing bit of grief; while I... while there I am, in the bath tub, relaying my "facts" to a rubber duck.

Happy Dr. King Day!

2009-01-19T09:24:00Z

A man I will admire indefinitely was born eighty years and four days ago. Some may say he was plagued by his own many foibles we never hear about, others - that the Civil Rights Movement would have ran its course and succeeded whether or not he were ever born, but...
He eloquently and irrevocably stated what was true all along, he fought for that truth, and ultimately died for it, but we may never forget.

sorry, sappy post... it's just. it's something I feel very strongly about, it's hard for me to put something more sophisticated than a soup recipe or something more pertinent than a missing button into coherent sentences.

here:

different color, same species. And let such things never divide us again.

oh cock...

2008-12-31T00:01:59Z

So, cause and effect are wonderful things. Unless they're biting my ass right at this moment.
They are.

We went to play footy at Trump's golf course. We played for three hours, saw everybody's dogs, it was a wonderful day all around.
.. : :Enter Stupid: : ..

then we had the shining idea of going to Souplantation straight after. Stick it to the man, be sweaty, eat your way through the joint.
Sounds dispicable, I needn't be told, but yeah - be sweaty, eat your way through the joint, sit by the door(?!)

Needless to say, I've been sick as a dog for almost two days now.

I miss...

2008-12-28T21:12:22Z

...pizazz? intensity? excitement?
One of those three. I spent about an hour looking at pictures of colorful things, no reason - it just felt nice.
I have a jar of jelly beans on my desk - I don't eat them, I simply stare at them in reverie, because they're so.. SO.
My yarn bin is full of green, white, blue, gray, green, more green, cream, more shades of blue and some dusty rose I still don't know what to do with.
What am I hankering for? Orange? I have orange, it's a bit hard to wear.
I open my closet and there it is... blue, blue, green, white, gray, brown, and dusty rose I still don't know what to wear with.
I know! I need kool-aid, but I won't drink it. I'll ~~stare at it~~ dye with it. Yes, that will work ;)
What do I really? I don't know... loud music, infatuation, fascination, people, images, stories, adventures.
I was never against either 'bland' or 'boring' so long as it's good for me, but I guess now I know why I blanket my lentils in cayenne pepper.

...pain and aching. I'm serious.
No, not the whips-major surgery-stress fractures-dominatrix kind. No, graces, no!
Just the garden variety soreness you feel after not doing anything physical for quite a long time, then running a mile or two, or bench-pressing most of your weight - I don't know.
I stopped running a fair while ago, but I haven't stopped exercising in general - I still do it daily, but I guess I need what those smart books call overload. Or what my step-brother's coach affectionately refers to as "hell week".
Does that mean I'm soon to play [grid-iron] football? I sure hope not... but it might take some ingenuity.

You know what's wonderful though? Tash's Christmas card came in =) *bounce bounce bounce* It actually must have come around Boxing Day, but I haven't been around to see it until fairly recently.
Cara, grazi. buon Natale :) and wow, Australian stamps are pretty.

Goodness-pancakes..

2008-12-14T14:23:57Z

And I was having such a good morning, until -

look.

George W. Bush is ending his presidency in characteristically aggressive fashion (...) By the time he vacates the White House, he will have issued a record number of so-called 'midnight regulations' - so called because of the stealthy way they appear on the rule books (...)
One rule will make it easier for coal companies to dump debris from strip mining into valleys and streams. The process is part of an environmentally damaging technique known as 'mountain-top removal mining'. It involves literally removing the top of a mountain to excavate a coal seam and pouring the debris into a valley, which is then filled up with rock. The new rule will make that dumping easier.

Also on the plate - concealed and loaded weapons in national parks, coal power plants much closer to them, 'religious reasons' for denying medical help and "self-regulation" for fishing and farming industries.
Nice, isn't it? These will take years to overturn.

and I thought Ougoudougou was rad

2008-11-28T16:48:01Z

It is! I mean, I wouldn't want to live there, but it's fantastic nevertheless.
I have a new cheating-at-Scrabble geographical location -

Woolloomooloo, Sydney, New South Wales.
Apparently, a 'burb of Sydney. Home to the Finger Wharf, the largest wooden structure in the world.

(see, I told you I was going to brush up on my knowledge of Antipodean locales!)
With all my bragging about being able to pronounce almost anything (besides Spanish and Swedish R's, I know), had I had to articulate double consonants, I'd... need a deep breath, at least.

and yes, I know, the Aussie contingent of my f-list may say that they've known about this place since birth, have relatives there and/or are descended from the person who founded it.
I didn't know until now, I'm trying.

bad sex awards

2008-11-27T22:58:30Z

click at your own risk... Although, I must say that it's more funny and awful than it is any kind of titillating.

I am glad, however, someone hands these big feet out - horrid sexual metaphors are just that, and there should be less of them.

"a moth caught inside a lampshade", my dear Maude...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I miss being perfect.

2008-11-22T19:47:58Z

I was once, you know. Not perfect-perfect - that's illegal - I asked; but I know I was close.
I wore pink head-to-toe, can you believe it? I hate pink. I wore it in truly indecent amounts just for the ruthless, high-maintenance bitch vibe it carried. Protected by my cloud of magenta from all, but the most stammering and duck-footed of bothers, I managed to get both all A's and on the 5 o'clock train on Friday, to make my then-boyfriend breakfast in bed.

I know it sounds like I'm full of myself, I'm not.
It was all an act, a strange, static dance on the tight-rope; and boy, did it hurt to misstep. How long did my dance last? It was years ago and I'm no longer sure, but enough to make the fall long and [self]injurous. The last semester still ended in 4.0, no-one really saw my mask crack and I got to learn a valuable lesson at a sale price, but it hurt.

I now know that under excess pressure I become self-destructive.

Yep, knowledge is power. Which is as useful to you as a lightning strike (burning things down.. making lawns greener - not a lot), unless you know how to use it. The grass did look greener, but I just sort of fell into an open manhole and didn't see the light of day (or green of grass) for I don't know how long.

At some point, I met Frood, which, wonderful as he is, I deeply regret. At some point, I picked up running and quit my bad habits and social life. Some time after that, I lost my grandma and everything came tumbling down the stairs.
I wanted to die. Thanks to writing, knitting and a deluge of books, I'm still here.

And some time before that, I turned into a human pillowcase. Instead of math and code, I entertain myself by baking. Instead of living my own life, I surrogate it by taking care of someone else.
I turned twenty-two and, as always, along with the odd-numbered year, my angst is gone. Rather than sobbing, I'm dryly contemplating my ways out.

Of which, most have been exhausted.
- good, honest break-up - check
- feigned infidelity - check
- disappearance - check
- leaving the country - check
: :
that leaves me with [hopefully] feigned dysmorphophobia, as Frood hates girls who think they're fat.
I wish I didn't have to lie, but nor do I wish for something like this to be true.

*sings*
two of us wearing raincoats,
standing solo
in the sun.

you and me chasing paper,
getting nowhere
on our way back home...

Wonderful, wonderful things

2008-11-21T12:06:47Z

I love FreeRice, I love it, love it, love it. It tests your vocabulary and donates rice on your behalf and based on your achievement.
Now I love this too. Rather than words, it tests your knowledge of what [insert nation here] just don't understand - Geography, and instead of rice, it donates water.
It's a bliss, go try it

Also, I know it says "I love", "I do", but if Andrea hasn't posted about this earlier, I would have never guessed this wonderful charity game exists.
*hugs Andrea*

So, Kyrgyzstan is that dumbbell-shaped country west of China; Spain is easy to discern from others, as it has a Portugal-sized chunk taken out; and Croatia is the strip of land east of the leg of the famous Italian boot.
Now, if I could only figure out where are all those places in Australia...

..

2008-11-21T10:06:10Z

You know what mystifies me? Cricket.

Yep. I mean, you look at most sports and, without knowing much if, if anything at all, you're able to at least identify a head or tail.
Cricket, however? No dice. I must know how it works.
Yes, I simply must.

*goes to research Duckworth-Lewis method*

sunny Saturday

2008-11-08T21:26:18Z

Frood's out building networks (much to his regret - computer, not transportation) and I'm home darning our collective jeans and watching everything Setanta cat dragged in.
I haven't been much in a writing mood, but when I realized that it was too late for me to do NaNoBloMo (since I'm definitely not hardcore enough to do NaNoWriMo), I was rather sad...
I would like to write more - really! But I think I've caught my brother's bug of saying as little as possible, as to (try) to avoid making an ass of myself.
Yes, good job, that.
I would criticise (no, not criticise... caution against?) him for doing that, too. You know why? Because folks like us will feel like asses regardless of whether we manage to keep our mouths shut or not.
And this way, on top of feeling like asses, we end up coming off as assholes as well.
I was also going to ask Gary, assuming that he's still around, what on good bob's green earth is happening to Arsenal, but come to think of it... Nothing is - they're still top of the table, and the screechy voices calling for Arsene's resignation have been silenced by the void.

Big "WTF Mate?!", however, going to Van Persie, perhaps I'm misunderstanding something major, but from my boat that thump on the goalie looked rather uncalled for.

now, what should I cook for dinner?

back in the US... of A

2008-11-04T06:32:02Z

Yep.
Everything as it was before - Frood, soccer, knitting, cooking.
The former decided to enable me further by getting me a Setanta subscription - now I barely leave the house.
Sad. Rather.
It's kind of good to be back. I'm tired of hearing of Prop 8, McCain, Palin and other semi-human political huffpuff of this year.
Soon it'll be over... but prop 8? "traditional", good grief.
It's good to be back here. I'll catch up on all of your journals tomorrow, I want to.
For now - good night.
*bear-hugs her friend list*
-- w

So karma's obviously a bitch

2008-09-21T22:08:07Z

It's nearly two am, I feel like munching on something, so I stick my hand in the crisper and pull out a pepper.
Not a hot pepper, but not a bell pepper either - all hot peppers here are cayenne (very rarely - Ukranian bitters) and all sweet - Hungarian wax.
I bite into it greedily and... it's hot as Hades!
Had I not been so selfish (I picked out the prettier pepper), I wouldn't have had to drink those two liters of tap water just now.

All rightey then, I learned my lesson, world. I shall be more considerate.
Meh, at least the tap water here is good.

On another note: MNFF went the way all good message boards go at some point and all bad message boards never leave - drama galore.
I didn't think it'd happen, at least not now =(

good afternoon, campers

2008-07-19T20:05:51Z

here I am, eating kryptonite err, miso soup (I couldn't stand the stuff most of my life, but given my circumstances, it's good stuff and it's always there, so I suck it up and eat it) and contemplating my escape.

Mission: Impossible (aka buying clothes for a six-foot-tall, twenty-something skinny male) is almost complete.
Four days and sixty-five (of the budgeted hundred) dollars later, I've acquired twelve pairs of cotton socks, one pair of very snazzy jeans and three pairs of really expensive boxers my dear brother seems so attached to.
I've restrained myself and didn't buy anything orange, (but don't say I didn't want to!) and the remaining thirty-five are going towards (likely) another pair of pants - unless a counter-directive is to be received.

Research done: Sartorialist, Style.Men.com and a crapload of men's magazines of the non-nudie kind.
Fears surmounted: Naked dudes habitually pictured on packaged men's underwear. I don't know who on earth could be aided in purchasing drawers by pictures of beefy, semi-nude men, other than men who are into beefy, semi-nude men.

Quote of the day: Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt. (Herbert Hoover)
Thought of the day: I hate you, Steve Jobs! A Windows-formatted iPod plugged into a Mac (or at least my iPod plugged into a Mac) will re-format itself (i.e. clear all your data) whether or not you've clicked "Yes". I had a very sad, quiet jog right after that happened...
So now I shall have twenty hours of non-stop Dutch electronic music, since that's all Frood's computers have.

Good Bob, this stuff tastes awful when it's cold...

sigh

2008-07-14T15:25:59Z

The jolly green dragon doesn't lie. I'm feeling strangely relieved.
I've been doing nothing but cooking and drawing this whole week ("suitcase moods", as my father would put it, rolled in and engulfed anything that doesn't come naturally to me).
Cooking has been fun - there's been still a lot of pizza (we seem to really like pizza), but the other day, I stepped outside my usual guidelines and made flan.
I'm not sure exactly why. There isn't a clear-cut reason for me to feel confident about making it - I've never made either custard or caramel; Deb, my guru of all things food, had a flan fail miserably and now seems terrified of it.
Despite all that, the flan was great. I didn't have very much of it (my veganism has been suspended, my lactose-intolerance has not), but the caramel... the caramel on the bottom was sheer joy. I had it on my pancakes the following morning - I could squee.
The same general stretch of time also yielded pasta with green beans and alfredo sauce. Made entirely for Frood - he loves the stuff. I don't share the consuming affection for creamy things, but as they say, if you want others to love you - let them do nice things for you. What they say is true, I love people all the more if they let me pamper them. On the less-craven side of life, the green beans and broccoli were great - I blanched them (boiled for a minute then dropped into ice water) before adding to the sauce and... it was wonderful.

Veganism? Veganism did safely survive the month pledged to it and then some. Nothing is hard about being vegan, don't believe the hype. Being a pain in the neck to others, however, is something different entirely - I remember my grandfather's face when I wouldn't eat something.
I've never liked meat, my family knows that, but everyone save for my dad also knows that they think it's unhealthy and that I'm much too skinny for my own good.
I'll probably try to take over much of the cooking when I visit (I'm certain my mom will have some directives towards her dad's nutrition as well), but otherwise... I'd rather not watch my recently widowed and grey doctor of nuclear physics personify glum resignation ever again.

The other day, we - of course! - went to the darn Apple store, spent most of the day in line and purchased Frood's glorified mobile device. Needless to say, that's my moment of resignation - he loves these things, I love him and, well, basically, there we go. At least we got to play soccer and collect seaweed at dawn before going there - two of my favorite things!
Playing soccer at the park is something we've been doing almost every day now. I highly recommend it!
I almost like it better than running, which, I think is something I will be doing right now.
Love you all,
-- w

dressed like a tart and dancing

2008-07-07T22:54:19Z

no, not really, but it does sound like fun...
*goes to find mini, fishnets and heels*

an avalanche of books

2008-06-27T17:24:47Z

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas <-- currently reading
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I need a -just- knitting blog

2008-06-17T10:10:41Z

I've been using this one as a receptacle for everything from soccer to feelings to cooking, which in itself is disorderly.
Worse yet, however, I've been friend-locking most of it all as well, so if my Ravelry-linked blog were to actually serve its purpose (being viewed in relation to my yarn-related exploits), it would also douse the casual reader with everything from memes to my political views.
Somehow, upon finally realizing how polarized this whale of a place is, I don't believe I should expose people to that...

Someday, I will perhaps have a designated journal for each of my hobbies. Yes, I shall need a separate server for that.

So it figures..

2008-05-19T01:19:51Z

( X ) Gone on a blind date - I think so, I'm not sure.

( X ) Skipped school

( ) Watched someone die

( ) Been to Canada

( ) Been to Mexico

( ) Been in a hot air balloon

( X ) Been on a plane

( X ) Been lost

( X ) Been on the opposite side of the country

( X ) Gone to Washington D.C.

( X ) Swam in the ocean

( X ) Cried yourself to sleep

( X ) Played cops and robbers or cowboys & indians

( ) Recently colored your hair?

( X ) Sang Karaoke

( X ) Paid for a meal with coins only?

( X ) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't?

( X ) Made prank phone calls

( X ) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose

( X ) Caught a snowflake on your tongue

( X ) Danced in the rain

( ) Written a letter to Santa Claus

( ) Been kissed under the mistletoe

( X ) Watched the sunrise with someone you care about

( X ) Blown bubbles

( X ) Gone ice-skating

( X ) Been skinny dipping

( X ) Gone to the movies

1. Any nickname?
Scores pf them.

2. What letter does your last name begin with?
R, which I can't pronounce in most languages.

3. Favorite drink?
Hot tea.

4. Tattoo?
No.

5. Body Piercings?
Navel.

6. How much do you love your job?
I usually quit the ones I don't like.

7. Favorite way to relax?
Stretching and knitting.

8. Favorite vacation spot?
Narragansett, (Rhode Island) and coast of Izmir (Turkey).

9. Ever been to Africa?
Not yet, but I want to!

10. Ever eaten cookies for dinner?
Yep.

11. Ever been on TV?
No.

12. Ever steal any traffic signs?
No, but the Bluejay way one was tempting.

13. Ever been in a car accident?
Yes, wear seatbelts, people!

14. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle?
I have a pair of chevro-legs.

15. Favorite salad dressing?
French, cuban or barbecue sauce.

16. Favorite pie?
Hmm.. Concord grape or sour cherry, but I don't like pie that much.

17. Favorite place in the world?
Moscow, with Chicago and Helsinki tied for second.

18. Favorite article of clothing?
Orange short-shorts I wear to the beach sometimes.

19. Favorite holiday?
New Year's Day, St. John's Day, April the 4th, May the 9th.

20. Favorite dessert?
Fresh, hot, homemade black currant jam, and tea.

well, this says I must...

2008-05-16T21:08:30Z

If you comment, I'll:

1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, 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 userpic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ.

aujourd'hui nous sommes

2008-05-12T00:25:34Z

ech...
There are good things and bad things - in no particular order.

My current favorite (food) blog - David Lebovitz' Sweet Life in Paris
My greatest enemy - procrastination.
My compulsive behaviour of choice - cleaning.

Speaking of homework, err, procrastination - I better go.
-- w

And yes, Tash - if you need a meme - this is an awfully small one, but nevertheless.

the letter S

2008-04-04T00:02:54Z

Lacey gave me the letter S. Leave me a comment and I'll give you a letter of your own ;)

Spiders! - I love and adore spiders. They have all these legs! There's penicillin on their webs. And they eat flies (which is wonderful) by injecting them with digestive juices and sucking out the liquified fly-guts. Isn't that cool? Ah, I am Carl Foutley, aren't I?

Sid Meier - is my personal hero. The man came up with Civ, for crying out's sakes! Many a Sunday was happily spent building maps, eating pudding and scheming to force my friends' civilizations into civil wars, alliances and other niceties of the game.

Scarves - I love knitting them, I love crocheting them, I love embroidering them, I love wearing them. I live in scarves.

Slips - you think pajamas are comfy? oooh... slips and nighties take that airy and comfy "I can wear whatever I want, thank you" feeling to a whole new level.

Seclusion - I don't hate people, I don't want them to die, but... I pick the quietest corner of the library, I put on my headphones and if someone comes over and hits on me, I tell I'm a lesbian (which is only half-true, but it works).

Silence - I mute the microwave, I put felt on door frames, I turn the volume down to barely audible levels, I never raise my voice and I wear socks and soft loafers, so you never hear me approaching. There is much to be learned from the breathing of wind, from the rustling of leaves and the chirping of crickets. I treasure silence.

Solitude - I actually like being by myself.

Seltzer

Steep hills - like those near my house, are a gift that keeps on giving. Running uphill, then enjoying the view from the top is bliss any day.

Sincerity - nothing beats it. I'd much rather be honestly hated than pretend-loved.

September - along with April, it's my favorite month. Though having been born in September, I'm rather biased.

Salad

Savior - a song by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Strawberry - as in, Linda Strawberry. She has an amazing voice and a tingling air of honesty about her. She's great.

Stairs! - I love, love, love climbing stairs. ...and hate descending on them - I get dizzy and imagine myself tumbling down them.

She-males - trannies are great.

Sybil Trelawney - I think she's hilarious and I must dress up as her for Halloween one day =)

Suomi - aka Finland. One of my favorite places to live and visit

Sorry - I say this word a lot and I have nothing, but respect for the power it has, even if by saying 'sorry' I seem to be taking the blame for something I may not have even seen. If there is blame to be laid on someone, I'd rather blame myself.

Silver

Spelling

Sunrise

Satire

Sawyer - Tom Sawyer.

Symbolism

Slade - a band most of you are too young or too cool to remember.

Seurat

Signac