christmas in southern California

Last night, as I was driving home from work, I passed the church near my office and its

DRIVE THRU NATIVITY

...

word geeks

Lacy Said: Should it be "she became anathema to him" or "she became AN anathema to him?"

Kris Said: (a) predicative nominative: become anathema.
Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't have studied linguistics rather than neuroscience, then I remember that linguistics department is full of a bubnch of arrogant, self important twats, whereas the neuro folk are fascinating mad scietists with a penchant for modelling things on computers and cutting apart skulls... :)

Lacy Said: I think I'm just overly fond of the alliterative onomatopia of "an anathema." =)

*enjoying the fact that you can use the words "predicative nominative" and "twat" in the same paragraph*

My GOD we're geeky.

unnatural, I tell you

I am feeling almighty accomplished this morning. It is not yet 9:15 AM today, and already I have:

a) worked out
b) organized a list of holiday gifts, including who they are for, what they are, where to get them, and whether or not I have gotten them, wrapped them, shipped them, or packed them
c) ordered presents (online and over the phone) for five people on my list

DAMN! What has gotten into me? Who is this woman and what is she doing sitting in Lacy's chair?

I am entertaining thoughts of actually putting together a holiday notebook for next year where I can keep gift ideas, my list from this year (so I don't do any duplicates), recipes, etc.

I am about to print off an address list for my holiday cards to be addressed and mailed this weekend (God willing).

I have an ENVELOPE in my planner with all my receipts in it from my Christmas gifts.

Honestly, what have I been smoking, and how can I make sure I act like this on a more regular basis?????

daily drabble

He wanted desperately to ask more questions about Professor Lindell, but Professor Dumbledore had started reminiscing about a time when he'd choked on a peanut and Hagrid had broken three of his ribs doing the Heimlich Maneuver.

From Chapter 24: Silent Night

favorite line of the day

The trick is to write them (males) realistically, but get the story out in spite of them.

Metalumai on Lacy's LiveJournal, talking about the meta of writing male characters (in fan fiction and not).

Yet another reason that censorship is stupid

So, apparently, Microsoft has finally decided that blogging is here to stay and has therefore built its own blogging tool called MSN Spaces. Unfortunately, however, it's been discovered that MSN Spaces actually censors words in blog titles and in the blogs themselves.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong here, but the very nature of blogging, to my mind, is in the enormous freedom a person has to write and publish his or her thoughts. They may not be thoughts that anyone else reads or, indeed cares about, but they are the blogger's thoughts. To me, the act of censoring these thoughts pretty well defeats the entire purpose of blogging.

Don't get me wrong. This is not me saying that internet pornography is a good thing or that curse words have a place on every blog, but honestly, if you're going to make a web tool specifically so that people can self-publish their thoughts, what exactly is the point of censoring them? Why not take it to the next step and give them an editor who also gives them tips on their grammar and spelling, because honestly, some of the poor writing out there offends me a lot more than the occasional curse word.

This article on Boing Boing called MSN Spaces: seven dirty blogs points out the inherent stupidity in computer based censorship anyway (watch out, there's some pretty dirty language in this article, but it's all in the interests of science...). To simplify the argument, it's back to the time when libraries were installing internet filters on their computers that blocked things like the word "breast" so that children couldn't look at pornography, but also so that patients couldn't look up information about breast cancer, and chefs couldn't look up recipes for chicken.

*SIGH*

Does anyone remember that commercial for the very first apple computers in 1984? It had a woman running into a huge room and smashing a TV with the image of "Big Brother" on it.

Nah. I'm not feeling superior because I just bought a Mac (I still have a hotmail account after all), I'm just shaking my head at the stupidity of a system at the hands of a corporation -- like Microsoft -- that still believes we all want to live in ignorance.

Thanks, but I think I can figure out what smut is for myself, if it's all the same to you.

useless mutant ability

So, a long time ago, I used to read this series of books by Piers Anthony about this magical place called Xanth. In Xanth, everyone is born with one magical ability, but unfortunately, most people's abilities are what they call "spot on the wall" talents, or quite frankly, pretty useless, like the ability to make a yellow spot appear on a wall.

There were, of course, some people who were born with very useful magical talents like talking to animals, or growing plants, or making illusions, and they were the rulers of Xanth.

In the X-Men series, all the mutants have pretty useful mutant abilites (except maybe Toad), but I would imagine that if that were to ACTUALLY happen, most people would get pretty useless mutant abilities.

As a matter of fact, I think it's already begun.

I have, as far as I can tell, TWO completely unrelated, and wholly useless mutant abilities.

The first is the uncanny ability to discern smells. That's right. I have a peculiar alacrity for scents. Somebody sniffs and says, "What's that funny smell?" and I'm there with an answer. "Broccoli," I say, or "tacos," or "skunk." But, on the whole, unless I wanted to get a job with a perfume manufacturer, it isn't a terribly useful talent, is it?

The second, and altogether less impressive of my mutant abilities is the ability to always pick the longest line. That's right. In a supermarket, at the bank, going through a toll booth, you name it. If there is a choice of two or more lines, I will always ALWAYS pick the one that will take longer. Even if one line has twelve people and the other has two, if I pick the line with two people, the first person will have to write a check, and the second will need a price check on diapers, and by the time I get through, all twelve people from the other line will be long gone. As a matter of fact, I have even noticed that if Brandon asks me which line to pick, he will pick the opposite of my choice. It is invariably a good decision. So, you see, it is not, in any sense of the word, a useful mutant ability.

I can't be the only one who has noticed this. There must be others of you out there, somewhere, harboring your useless mutant abilities.

So I ask you, what's yours?

For the dad who has everything

The Heretic - Luxist - www.luxist.com

daily drabble

One entire wall of the living room was taken up with one of the largest Christmas trees Harry had ever seen. Or perhaps it only seemed huge because of the way it dominated the room. Either way, it was a magnificent sight, hung all around with what looked like hand made ornaments from the Weasley children's childhoods, floating candles, real snow and shining icicles, little red Cardinals that chirped and flapped their wings, tiny furry squirrels that darted from branch to branch watching Harry with their bead black eyes, and garlands of popcorn and cranberries. Harry put his finger out to touch a green Christmas tree ornament cut from felt with a tiny photo of the twins at about seven or eight years old, each with a giant bow stuck on his head.

From HP and the Sect of the Serpent, Chapter 25 - A Very Weasley Christmas

favorite line of the day

I apologise to all those chimpanzees out there, no matter how dominant you are or how much sex you have, no sperm insurance for you!

From krislaughs