![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Just you and me. Two alone people. Together. Alone
1. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cucumberseed, this afternoon on the bus I sat behind a woman with dead bees in her hair. I don't know how, but this is your fault.
2. Not only does the absinthe-minded bartender at Backbar still recognize me andderspatchel, he supplied the missing ingredient for the Seeräuber-Jenny, which I'd realized had to contain ginger liqueur (mule) and spiced black rum (pirates). Citrus, he said, and then after a moment's thought: bergamot. He didn't have any behind the bar, but if I can bring him some, he'll mix me the drink. Challenge accepted. —Where do I find bergamot?
3. Lorem Ipsum is one of those vortex bookstores where you look in to see what's on the shelves and leave something like an hour later regretting only that you didn't have the cash in hand for Rube Goldberg's Guide to Europe (1954). We stopped in briefly on the way to dinner at Tupelo and came back afterward for our couple of books which were half a dozen by the time we fled. The bookseller threw in a local 'zine for free. Also some bookmarks, which reminds me that I should probably not use the envelope with the tickets for Gojira (1954) for the purpose in George Dyson's Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship (2002). I cannot afford Turing's Cathedral (2012) until it's out in trade paper, so I'm consoling myself with backlog.
4. Three episodes further with Viking Zen, The Legend of Korra is still impressing the hell out of me. The technology is complex and changing, the political situation in Republic City is as murky as in any metropolis, and the character work continues to avoid the obvious, sometimes in ways I don't even notice immediately. (I was walking home when it registered that the character gushing at Korra in a crush-struck way calls her the "smartest, funniest, toughest, buffest, talentedest, incrediblest girl in the world"—she's flattered to blushing and there is absolutely no attention drawn to the fact by either the script or the characters that this litany of compliments has zip-all to do with her physical appearance past the fact that "buff" is a definite attractor.) Someone is also having fun with fictional advertisements: Cabbage-Corp is a punch line waiting to happen (I'll be disappointed if it doesn't), but the timing on "Flameo Instant Noodles, noodliest noodles in the United Republic" was beautiful. And I continue to feel there are historical references I'm not getting, which means they're doing worldbuilding right.
5. I am still feeling a little thin-skinned and selectively interactive, but the last couple of days have involved something more like sleep than not and that's a leg up on the way I headed into last weekend. I will not be at Wiscon, if anyone's curious; I have no particular plans for Memorial Day. I think it will work out.
I walked home tonight in a glow-in-the-dark T-shirt for the first time in years. It reminded me that as a child I had glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling—I marked out the major constellations, as I suspect many people I know nowadays did. I don't think I'd want them again; I am the sort of person who props books in front of or drapes clothes over the computer lights while I sleep. But I miss that sort of casual astronomy in my life. This comment also brought to you by reading Project Orion and about four children's books from the 1950's in the same three-day span. I thought I had a decent chance at being an astronaut when I was eleven.
cucumberseed, this afternoon on the bus I sat behind a woman with dead bees in her hair. I don't know how, but this is your fault.2. Not only does the absinthe-minded bartender at Backbar still recognize me and
derspatchel, he supplied the missing ingredient for the Seeräuber-Jenny, which I'd realized had to contain ginger liqueur (mule) and spiced black rum (pirates). Citrus, he said, and then after a moment's thought: bergamot. He didn't have any behind the bar, but if I can bring him some, he'll mix me the drink. Challenge accepted. —Where do I find bergamot?3. Lorem Ipsum is one of those vortex bookstores where you look in to see what's on the shelves and leave something like an hour later regretting only that you didn't have the cash in hand for Rube Goldberg's Guide to Europe (1954). We stopped in briefly on the way to dinner at Tupelo and came back afterward for our couple of books which were half a dozen by the time we fled. The bookseller threw in a local 'zine for free. Also some bookmarks, which reminds me that I should probably not use the envelope with the tickets for Gojira (1954) for the purpose in George Dyson's Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship (2002). I cannot afford Turing's Cathedral (2012) until it's out in trade paper, so I'm consoling myself with backlog.
4. Three episodes further with Viking Zen, The Legend of Korra is still impressing the hell out of me. The technology is complex and changing, the political situation in Republic City is as murky as in any metropolis, and the character work continues to avoid the obvious, sometimes in ways I don't even notice immediately. (I was walking home when it registered that the character gushing at Korra in a crush-struck way calls her the "smartest, funniest, toughest, buffest, talentedest, incrediblest girl in the world"—she's flattered to blushing and there is absolutely no attention drawn to the fact by either the script or the characters that this litany of compliments has zip-all to do with her physical appearance past the fact that "buff" is a definite attractor.) Someone is also having fun with fictional advertisements: Cabbage-Corp is a punch line waiting to happen (I'll be disappointed if it doesn't), but the timing on "Flameo Instant Noodles, noodliest noodles in the United Republic" was beautiful. And I continue to feel there are historical references I'm not getting, which means they're doing worldbuilding right.
5. I am still feeling a little thin-skinned and selectively interactive, but the last couple of days have involved something more like sleep than not and that's a leg up on the way I headed into last weekend. I will not be at Wiscon, if anyone's curious; I have no particular plans for Memorial Day. I think it will work out.
I walked home tonight in a glow-in-the-dark T-shirt for the first time in years. It reminded me that as a child I had glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling—I marked out the major constellations, as I suspect many people I know nowadays did. I don't think I'd want them again; I am the sort of person who props books in front of or drapes clothes over the computer lights while I sleep. But I miss that sort of casual astronomy in my life. This comment also brought to you by reading Project Orion and about four children's books from the 1950's in the same three-day span. I thought I had a decent chance at being an astronaut when I was eleven.
no subject
Do you think the dead bees were meant as decoration, or were they simply _there_? Either way, that does sound disturbing, at least to me.
Where do I find bergamot?
I wish I knew. I'm familiar with it as the flavouring agent in Earl Grey, of course, but I've never seen it as the citrus itself. Reading the wikipedia article makes me think you're wanting the essence, which is reportedly used in confections and, especially in Italy, in marmelade.
The bookshop sounds excellent. I've not been in a place like that in a long while, alas.
I'm glad that The Legend of Korra is continuing to hold up.
And I continue to feel there are historical references I'm not getting, which means they're doing worldbuilding right.
Indeed. I'm always impressed on the rare occasions that my dreams seem to have references to things that, in the world of the dream, are completely normal, in such a way that, when I wake, I don't say to myself "That was absurd" but "That obviously made sense there".
...the last couple of days have involved something more like sleep than not and that's a leg up on the way I headed into last weekend.
I'm glad to hear this.
Hurrah for glow-in-the-dark T-shirts. I didn't have glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling as a child, but whoever had this room before me put some up there. They're not in constellations, but I've never had the heart to remove them.
no subject
That's a nice thing to move in to.
no subject
Nine
no subject
no subject
Hah. Thank you. I don't think it's quite that complex right now.
no subject
2. I love bartenders who know their stuff; perhaps they only exist in cocktail bars and real ale pubs. They're always a pleasure to talk to.
3. Now *that* sounds like an excellent bookshop!
I wish I could paint; "Turing's Cathedral" is such an evocative title that it demands a picture.
5. May I ask what the design on your t-shirt was?
(I've always been terrible about recognising constellations, despite the amount of astronomy books I had as a kid. I contented myself with the moon instead.)
no subject
I really feel I should give
Now *that* sounds like an excellent bookshop!
There are still some very good bookstores in the Boston area! There just used to be more.
I wish I could paint; "Turing's Cathedral" is such an evocative title that it demands a picture.
All reviews I've read of the book (and the chapter I perused in the bookstore) indicate it lives up to it: but, yes. It's one of those titles. And I'd love to see your painting.
May I ask what the design on your t-shirt was?
NASA. Borrowed. Still made me happy.
no subject
no subject
Bah. Well, may there be DVDs.
no subject
We definitely had glow in the dark stars on our bedroom ceiling when we were little (when I changed rooms, I actually put them up randomly and spent a while looking for constellations - there is still a jester and a dagger there, if you know where to look), it reminded me of this guy: http://www.reddit.com/r/predaddit/comments/ts2wr/just_finished_the_ceiling_in_the_babies_room_the/ - unfortunately I'm not that awesome.
no subject
That's pretty hardcore.
What did the jester and the dagger signify? Constellations should have stories. (And calling it a foretelling of the Farseer trilogy doesn't count.)
no subject
no subject
The bartender just said "bergamot," so I'll assume he'd have specified peel if he wanted it and avoid the crystally woo-woo in the meantime.
no subject
Also, someone should make up a song about an absinthe-minded bartender. As for bergamot, is it the essential oil you want? You might be able to get it someplace like Whole Foods.
no subject
It inclines one instantly to go in. And it worked!
Also, someone should make up a song about an absinthe-minded bartender.
"A man with absinthe on his mind" does sound like a particular sort of character.
As for bergamot, is it the essential oil you want? You might be able to get it someplace like Whole Foods.
I'm guessing oil? Whole Foods would be easier than the internet.
no subject
no subject
When my parents remodeled the kitchen three years ago (accomplished by my father, my brother, and myself—if you ever want countertops installed, tile grouted, or floorboards laid, I can help you out there), we put Orion on the ceiling in LEDs, white, red, blue, the right colors and magnitudes of the stars. He's full of stories.
Also, I never thought I'd be an astronaut, because astronauts are explorer-soldier types.
I didn't like the idea of military training, but I wouldn't have minded being an explorer. And by the time I was grown, I thought, it might be commonplace enough that I wouldn't have to join the Air Force.
I just thought I'd live in space. I thought everybody would live in space. Actually I thought everybody already did, only we'd understand it better when we lived in other space also.
That's well-said.
no subject
no subject
We haven't actually met anyone from Cabbage Corp yet—they've only been mentioned on the radio—but I would be charmed by that casting.
no subject
no subject
Hence my waiting for something awful to happen to the as yet unseen Cabbage Corp!
which always made me hark back to the Yuppie Couple and the Central Park Jogger on Gargoyles.
. . . which I have not seen. What was the deal with the Yuppie Couple and the Central Park Jogger?)
no subject
. . . which I have not seen. What was the deal with the Yuppie Couple and the Central Park Jogger?)
They tended to show up and see things that they shouldn't, and their roles increased over time and eventually they actually had standard cameos on the show, or at least, the Yuppie Couple did. They acquired names and jobs, etc.
This was also played beautifully in the other direction with the Vinny episode, where it is revealed that one of the thugs who's been showing up as cannon fodder in several previous episodes turns out to be the same poor hired clod, who is now determined to have his revenge! It's beautifully done.
no subject
I love when one-shot characters take root and become real. Some of my favorites in any long-running media are (unsurprisingly) of that kind.
no subject
Well, that's the most mythic image I've read today. Looks like mythagos like your bus route.
Project Orion was a fever-dream weird idea. I'm still not sure how it extracted funding from the claws of DOE.
no subject
I like your explanation.
If it gives you a poem, I won't stand in its way.
Project Orion was a fever-dream weird idea. I'm still not sure how it extracted funding from the claws of DOE.
You could do anything with the word "atomic" in those days. Everyone involved in the project (and still alive to be interviewed by George Dyson) seems to be amazed in retrospect that it was considered seriously for as long as it was—from 1957/58 through 1963, when the test-ban treaty by definition put paid to the idea of nuclear propulsion—while still confident it would have worked, assuming the pusher-plate problem was successfully solved. I'd love to know if anyone since has done modeling to determine whether they did get it right.
no subject
Today's magic phrases are 'dark energy' and 'gravity waves'.
I shall investigate if more recent modelling has been done. Given Los Alamos is still at the stage where small change consists of diverting a mere 500 processors to simulate the inside of an exploding star, I suspect it can have been looked at in exquisite detail.
no subject
Poem of incantations, please, thank you.
Given Los Alamos is still at the stage where small change consists of diverting a mere 500 processors to simulate the inside of an exploding star, I suspect it can have been looked at in exquisite detail.
Let me know what you find out!
no subject
Ooh. Um, chewy. I like the shape of it; will see what I can do. *happybounce*