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My real blog commences beneath this message.

Musings

Feb. 15th, 2020 03:14 pm
pjthompson: (musings)
Some ignoramus has posted a video on YouTube showing Frank Sinatra with Nat King Cole actually singing the song, “L.O.V.E.” This is the wonderful and classy Nat King Cole:


*

Two hours without WiFi and I was hyperventilating. Fortunately, it was a simple fix, but I may have an addiction problem.
*

Tommy. His eyes were actually a soulful gray, not blue. He was in his forties and had done his soldiering during World War I. He became a special police officer during World War II so the younger men could go and fight.



*

I found an old keepsake box buried amongst a lot of, well, junk. Some genuine keepsakes inside the box, but also some very old story rejection letters from some of the top magazines, stuff I sent out when I was probably barely out of high school. All form letters, of course. I decided my nostalgia did not stretch to holding on to those any longer. I Kondo'd their a*ses.
*

That feeling when something seemingly minor turns dark and deep and symbolic…



*

I WILL NOT JOIN FACEBERG, no matter how many paranormal and Outlander live events they host. I WILL NOT become part of the evil empire! I WILL NOT! (Although I did succumb a little bit and joined Instagram. Mostly as a lurker.)
*

What to do with all these calendars that people gave me because they didn't know what else to give me? I only need one and that's the one with kitties that I bought myself.
*

Sometimes I look at my house and pity the person who, when I die, will have to clean out and dispose of ALL THESE BOOKS. But mostly I pity the books.
*

Zero results from the Iowa Caucus are just about right if you consider Iowa's relative importance to reflecting the diversity of the United States. They give such outsized importance to Iowa and New Hampshire. Nothing against either of those states but they're hardly representative of the rest of the country. Yet because somebody gets defeated in either Iowa or New Hampshire often they're eliminated from the race.
*

I get nonsense phrases stuck in my head sometimes. When I was doing research for the WIP on Nazi occult matters recently, the nonsense phrase in my cranial echo chamber was, "Otto Rahn on the Autobahn." Research earworms. I have a weird brain. Fortunately, "Otto Rahn on the Autobahn" made me laugh.
*

Ray Bradbury famously said about writing, "Jump off a cliff and build your wings on the way down." I'm at that stage of my current WIP where I'm wondering if I've jumped off the wrong goddamned cliff.
*

I’ve been reading Last Mountain Dancer by Chuck Kinder on and off for about a month. It’s both an interesting and irritating book so I'm not sure I'd wholeheartedly recommend it. I keep reading because it's about West Virginia where Kinder was born and raised and when he talks about that place, the book sings. Then he goes off into the woods talking about his extramarital affairs and his bad boy ways and it gets boring. (I am so done with middle-aged male angst.)

But yeah, when he talks about what a remarkable and strange place West Virginia is on so many levels it’s worth the read. He goes into many legends, those arising from the tragedies of Matewan and the coal mine bosses, as well as Mothman and other less well-known oddities. It turns out his mother was born and raised in Point Pleasant, WV, home of Mothman, and that her maiden name was Parsons—which will have some meaning to those who follow Hellier.
*

I was watching a show on Hadrian's Wall and Vindolanda where they've discovered lots of messages to and from soldiers. In one of them the soldier refers to the tribes they were trying to keep north of the wall as "Britunculi": "nasty little Britains.” My people!
*

Hellier has made me way too map conscious. Every time I see something weird about a place I always have to find out where it is in relation to Point Pleasant or Somerset or Hellier or whatever. And it's kind of amazing how much weirdness connects up.

I say this knowing full well how much the human mind longs for linkages and synchronicities.
*

Lewis Black: "Trump is good for comedy the way a stroke is good for a nap."
*

Patrick Stewart was on Colbert the other week talking about when he was younger he and Ben Kingsley were here in LA doing Shakespeare, along with some other actors of the RSC. He said he and Ben went to Hollywood because they were excited to see the hand- and footprints at the Chinese theater (Sir Pat recently joined the famous hand- and footprints there). But the whole time he's talking I was remembering being a young undergraduate at UCLA where Sir Pat and Sir Ben were doing those Shakespeare performances. During the day when they were not rehearsing or going to Hollywood all of the actors from the RSC would come to classrooms where Shakespeare and theater were being taught, talk to the students, and give impromptu performances. I was lucky enough to be in two such classes. One was Shakespeare, the other on Modern Theatre. I snuck into a third class taught in the theater department and held in an auditorium, but the other two were small English department classrooms. I was lucky enough to sit no more than 6-10 feet away from Sir Pat and Sir Ben while they answered questions and did impromptu performances. Utterly thrilling, even though neither of them was famous at that time. They were just masterful actors doing amazing performances up close and personal. Sir Ben still had his hair back then. Sir Pat did not. But his voice was that rich dark chocolate even back then. PRESENCE, both of them, and I never forgot.
*

There's hope, I think, even thought the GOP did not have the guts to do the right thing. During the impeachment trial I called my doctor's office and the answering service picked up. As she took my message I heard the impeachment trial playing in the background. America is listening. We won't forget. I hope they still remember next November.
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)

Random quote of the day:

“I think we risk becoming the best informed society that has ever died of ignorance.”

—Rubén Blades, at a Harvard conference reported by Anne Stewart of AP, February 18, 1993

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Lucy and Ethel, Justin Bieber, or the Kardashian Klan. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

pjthompson: quotes (quotei)

Random quote of the day:

“The real issue with the internet may be that it erodes, slowly, one’s sense of self, one’s capacity for the kind of pleasure in isolation that reading has, since printed books became common, been standard.”

—Henry Hitchings, quoted in The Guardian, 15 July 2010, “The Art of Slow Reading”

 reading4WP@@@

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

pjthompson: astronomer (observing)

Mar 12
I love this man: http://ontd-political.livejournal.com/10981269.html 

Mar 13
Some days I miss hanging out with my characters so much it hurts. Some of them were running though my mind a lot today. Maybe I’ll be able to use all this to write a really profound book one day. Either that, or croak early.

Mar 16
Always glad to see Jenny McCarthy slammed for her unscientific and harmful beliefs on vaccines. Can we start on Gwyneth Paltrow now? Oh wait, she’s just criminally elitist and stupid, not a murderer.

Mar 23
I feel bad that you feel badly. Perhaps your doctor should examine your hands.

Mar 24
The dream factory isn’t dead: it keeps supplying me with good ideas I haven’t got time to write.

Mar 25
I like the idea (from The Caliph’s House by Tahir Shah) that the Jinns decide whether or not we’re going to believe in them.

Mar 28
A working mom’s open letter to Gwyneth http://nyp.st/1eVO22J 

Could this woman be any more blinkered and entitled? Yeah. I don’t think she’s bottomed out yet.

Mar 28
My cat is sad because she wanted to seek enlightenment but all the other cats cared for was tuna.

pic.twitter.com/fQMG2efc5w

Mar 29
Louis CK: “I got a white noise machine. You know what that is? It’s a machine that allows white people to sleep.”

Apr 3
Pro-tip: Don’t ask an animal activist the old joke question, “Do you know how to get down off a duck?” You’ll never get to the punchline.

Pro-tip2: Use a ladder.

Apr 3
Duty vs. personal aspirations, that’s my conflict. Most days sublimated, some days excruciating.

ETA: Love is also in the mix, making things more confused.

Apr 4
Walmart’s false argument: RT If Walmart Paid Employees a Living Wage, How Much Would Prices Go Up? http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/04/walmart_living_wage_if_the_company_paid_its_employees_more_how_much_would.html …

Apr 4
I believe in science and I believe in spirit. This doesn’t have to be a dichotomy or a contradiction. It just is.

Apr 4
While eating chips I read, “Every bite of food you eat alters your daily metabolism, electrolyte balance, and proportion of fat to muscle.”

Apr 7
And my mother turned 93 today. Happy birthday, Mam!

Apr 8
Dear Nekkid Girl Posing In An Abandoned Warehouse: it isn’t arty. You’re still just a nekkid girl.

Apr 10
Penn & Teller decimating the anti-vaccination brigade in under two minutes. http://youtu.be/lhk7-5eBCrs 

Apr 10
When did “alone” become synonymous with “lonely”? The two are quite distinct.

Apr 11
The transport company that takes Mom to dialysis two days a week just called to say that in May they’ll charge $70 a ride not $30. I don’t know what we’re going to do. We can’t afford that, and the alternative is me missing a lot more work.

Apr 13
Potentially hopeful news from the social worker yesterday about transportation for Mom to dialysis. Don’t want to say much for fear of jinxing.

No, I never engage in magical thinking, why do you ask?

Apr 14
Let go and let the Universe. I now have three possible solutions to my mother’s dialysis transportation problems.

Apr 15
I’m so old I remember having to get up and walk over to the TV to change channels.

Apr 18
Me at the cafeteria: This morning I need a whisky muffin. Hold the muffin.

Apr 23
A hornet’s nest found in an abandoned shed. The head is a part of a wooden statue it fused with.

pic.twitter.com/rL1xLzXLLB [Warning: may cause the wiggins.]

Nature abhors a vacuum.

Apr 24
3 judges sided with Verizon and decided to let ISPs censor the internet. Tell the FCC to restore net neutrality! http://cms.fightforthefuture.org/tellfcc/ 

Apr 24
Maybe I should do as my spam suggests and get myself a Russian Bride. Of course, I might not be able to fulfill all her expectations. Too bad they don’t have a green card program for “domestic assistants.”

Apr 25
What Hitchens got wrong: Abolishing religion won’t fix anything http://www.salon.com/2013/12/07/what_hitchens_got_wrong_abolishing_religion_wont_fix_anything/ …

Apr 29
Avoidance seems to be the chief management style of many organizations.

Apr 30
I’m thinking of starting a company called Clusterf*cks R Us. Probably wouldn’t get much business, though.

Apr 30
Okay, maybe I’m a little panicky over how much I have to do before my surgery in two weeks. And maybe the surgery, too. And the recovery.

A little.

Verging on a lot.

May 1
My spam keeps sending me a “Notice to Appear.” I think I’ll send my Russian Bride instead.

May 1
The night air is full of jasmine crushed into luscious fragrance by the first heatwave of the year.

May 2
Even the most shining hero is a human being with feet of clay. If we’d just remember this, there would be less anger in this society.

May 3
The same government agency which made us prove my mom was married to my dad and that he had died needs us to prove it all over again 20 years later. Different department, you see. Apparently they’re unable to communicate with one another. Dealing with government agencies is a big component of caregiver fatigue. It wouldn’t be so bad except my dad’s death certificate has gone missing and L.A. County takes 4 weeks to get a new one.

May 3
Or maybe I won’t have surgery in 2 weeks. If I put it off this time, it will be 2 times.

May 4
Mom is home from the hospital. She’s doing okay.

May 6
I wonder if the superbuff guy on the cover of so many romance novels who’s face disappears past the top of the cover has a really ugly mug?

Or if, yanno, it’s supposed to be some artistic sh*t.

Or if, yanno, it’s so women can fantasize any man they want?

May 6
Abandoned mill from 1866 in Sorrento, Italy: Oh, the stories this conjures up!

pic.twitter.com/kHgXAnyRVV

May 6
I think “narcissistic loony toon” sums M. Lewinsky up quite nicely. She has wedged her way back into the public eye just like that string was wedged between her cheeks.

[Fortunately, it was a brief appearance and quickly faded from the public’s notice.

May 7
The Red Queen still rages. “The trick is not becoming a writer. The trick is staying a writer.” —Harlan Ellison

pic.twitter.com/C0YNAXzclI

May 9
My surgery has been officially postponed. Mom had some minor setbacks that were major enough to warrant postponement.

I’m deeply ambivalent. I don’t fancy being a cripple for the rest of my life, however.

I think I’ll change my middle name to Ambivala.

May 11
THIS. Roz Chast on people wanting to live to be 120: “I feel like these are people who don’t really know anybody over 95.” http://n.pr/1nCUcrx 

“The reality of old age,” she says, is that “people are not in good shape, and everything is falling apart.”

Everyone says, “It’ll be different for me. I’ve taken good care of myself.” But you NEVER know what life will throw at you.

That’s life’s sweet and cursed mystery.

“When you’re young you look at old people & just think they’re old people. It’s only later that you properly realise they’re ex-young people.” —Tom Cox, Twitterfeed 5/10/14

Everyone thinks they will be 30 until they’re 75. Until they hit 40, I guess.

May 15
RIP Lady Mary Stewart. You filled my Young Adulthood with many happy hours.

May 15
Ironic Twitter Juxtaposition: http://twitpic.com/e3vvhy 

May 17
Ironic or psychosomatic? I wrenched my knee on the very day my surgery would have taken place. Not the one that would have been operated on, either. My other knee which has as many problems and will need its own surgery someday.

May 21
Ironic Twitter Juxtaposition: http://twitpic.com/e4drq1 

May 21
I’m at the bargaining with the Universe stage. That can’t be good.

May 22
My friend and I were just saying that the next Survivor should feature an all-geriatric group of contestants.

“If your team all successfully completes your challenge, you will be given your meds as usual. If not…”

And complaint marathons to see who lasts the longest. That competition is expected to go on for days.

May 22
I can hear a train whistle every once in awhile late at night. It’s always wonderful. I don’t know where it comes from. There are no trains closer than five miles, but I guess that sound carries. Either that, or it’s the ghost of a train which once ran just down the hill from where I live.

When I was a kid I used to follow those tracks from Venice, once all the way into Culver City. The trains only ran once a month late at night to keep the access rights. Eventually, they gave those up but the rails remained for years afterwards, partially covered in blacktop in some places. They’re all gone now, alas.

There is so much that is gone. Venice is a highly urban place now but once was full of open fields, trains, horse stables. I’ve seen them all go in such a short span of time. A lifetime. Palimpsests. They’re everywhere I look, all over Venice.

Here’s one of my palimpsests: http://tinyurl.com/oa4z3mh 

May 28
“It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.”

Maya Angelou seemed immortal, but it was her glowing humanity that made her seem that way. Alas, if only. RIP.

May 30
pic.twitter.com/OX9CqMctxV This picture reminded me to send a b-day card to a friend. I may inhabit this skull but I don’t always understand it.

Jun 3
Sexism kills (maybe): http://tinyurl.com/p5rkuta 

Jun 3
It’s such a pain reading academic books on the Kindle that I’m going to order a paper copy and be done with it.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Scary!

Feb. 10th, 2014 12:00 pm
pjthompson: (lilith)
Random quote of the day:

"I don’t know the percentage of the Internet that’s valid, do you? Jesus, it’s scary."

—Hunter S. Thompson, interview, Atlantic Monthly, August 26, 1997


 photo internet4WP_zpsdf81b38b.jpg



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Scary!

Feb. 10th, 2014 11:43 am
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)

Random quote of the day:

“I don’t know the percentage of the Internet that’s valid, do you? Jesus, it’s scary.”

—Hunter S. Thompson, interview, Atlantic Monthly, August 26, 1997

 internet4WP@@@

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

pjthompson: (Default)
I've had to ban anonymous comments for the time being due to a persistent spammer. Sorry for the inconvenience to those not registered with LJ. I'll try decloaking after a time to see if I can allow anonymous comments again.
pjthompson: (lilith)

If you get any funny email from me from me, delete it immediately. I never use “hi” as a subject line and am not forwarding job information.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

pjthompson: (salome)

If you get any funny email from me from me, delete it immediately. I never use “hi” as a subject line and am not forwarding job information.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

pjthompson: (lilith)

I don’t like piracy, but this legislation is taking a sledgehammer to the problem when a scalpel is needed.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

pjthompson: (salome)

I don’t like piracy, but this legislation is taking a sledgehammer to the problem when a scalpel is needed.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

pjthompson: quotes (quotei)

Random quote of the day:

 

“Email gives the illusion of progress even when nothing is happening.”

—Bob Geldof, quoted by David Shipley, NPR interview, 6/20/08

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

pjthompson: quotes (quotei)

Random quote of the day:

 

“Email gives the illusion of progress even when nothing is happening.”

—Bob Geldof, quoted by David Shipley, NPR interview, 6/20/08

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

pjthompson: (Default)
I'm staying because LJ is home and also because of what this insightful post says, and because of what the BBC says.

Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] sartorias and [livejournal.com profile] msstacy13 for the links.

ETA: [livejournal.com profile] asakiyume pointed me to this article from Time magazine on the hacker attacks.

I hate bullies. I hate bullies with a political ax to grind who want to limit free speech.

So I'm staying, dammit.

Having said that, I am backing everything up to Dreamwidth and my website blog. Never a bad thing to protect years worth of content.
pjthompson: (lilith)

You may want to read this. Etsy has done a Facebook and outed their sellers and their buyers. Update your privacy page! The article shows you how.

I’m really dismayed. I haven’t bought anything embarrassing, but it’s really nobody’s business what I have bought.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. There’s no such thing as privacy on the internet, but there should be informed consent.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

ETA: Etsy has responded. (Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] jenstclair.) I will note that when I first Googled my Etsy name (and wasn't logged in to Etsy) my entire sales profile and favorites appeared. They don't appear on the Google page now, but they're still cached. Fortunately, I don't use my real name.
pjthompson: (salome)

You may want to read this. Etsy has done a Facebook and outed their sellers and their buyers. Update your privacy page! The article shows you how.

I’m really dismayed. I haven’t bought anything embarrassing, but it’s really nobody’s business what I have bought.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. There’s no such thing as privacy on the internet, but there should be informed consent.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

pjthompson: (Default)
If I didn't have the crud and no energy, I might actually blog about some of these topics. As is, here's the Twitter roundup.

I didn't ever think I'd be doing this, posting my Twitter messages to my blog, but the trouble is, I've been spending a lot of my random thoughts over there and deflating my need to blog, as well as some of the material I might use. So, here's the roundup for the last 24 hours. I don't know if I'll keep this up, especially if I have to do it manually (which seems way silly). Maybe only if I've said something that seems worth the effort. Which, frankly, is hardly ever. Or if I have the crud and no energy. Which, hopefully, won't be that often.

Does anyone know of one of those Twitter rebroadcast services (a la Twittinesis) that doesn't require you to hork up your blog password? I'm quite chary about doing that. Plus, I might like the option of weeding out some of the garbage.

[livejournal.com profile] jmeadows has an excellent post about what the #SpeakLoudly hashtag means. Someone is trying to ban books again. Go, read.

And now, for the Twitter piffle that is my life:

Bed, Bath and Beyond is a dangerous place...for a person like me who has let Suburbia eat my soul.
about 21 hours ago via web

i'm also writing shiny new words after a long break. It DOES feel great.
about 18 hours ago via mobile web

I've been known to cut an average of 20-40k from my novels before I start shopping them. In one painful instance 60k.
about 4 hours ago via web

I always write long and padded, but the good news is I'm not cranking out 160k 1st drafts anymore. Still too much but better.
about 3 hours ago via web

So if my betas tell me I need to trim down a bunch of stuff I'm never surprised. Expected. :-D
about 3 hours ago via web

How do we end rape and other serious issues by banning books which deal with them and confusing rape with porn? Idiocy. #SpeakLoudly about 2 hours ago via web

I suppose he wants to ban Slaughterhouse 5 because war is too violent or anti-war is too pacifist? Idiocy. #SpeakLoudly about 2 hours ago via web

Still have the crud again today. Thought I'd shaken it yesterday but feeling bad again this morning/afternoon. Non-specific crudiness.
about 1 hour ago via mobile web


Min on lap purring to make me feel better but jealous of Mr. Droid.
about 1 hour ago via mobile web

pjthompson: (Default)
ETA: Here's more information on the cross-posting issue between LJ and Facebook from mount_oregano. You have to be logged in from Facebook in order to get LJ comments to cross-post.
pjthompson: (Default)
I've had a Dreamwidth account for quite some time but never mirrored this journal there. I'm in the process of amending that now. I won't be leaving LJ because I've been at home here since before Six Apart bought it. Most of my journal entries are public, written to be a public platform, but I still have grave and deep-seated concerns about the whole Facebook/Twitter/LJ/The World merger and rape of user privacy. I think this blog post by [livejournal.com profile] cleolinda best sums up my concerns—and my reasons for staying.

So, I will be blogging on my website, mirrored on Dreamwidth, and remaining here for the foreseeable future.

If anyone would like some Dreamwidth invitations, I still have six left.

ETA: Here's more information on the cross-posting issue between LJ and Facebook from mount_oregano. You have to be logged in from Facebook in order to get LJ comments to cross-post.

Profile

pjthompson: (Default)
pjthompson

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