Things I Would Like People To Make, the non-SF version

[mrissa]

1. A series of websites on the theme, "What we don't know about ________." The blanks would be filled in with things like "astrophysics" and "prehistory in the region that became modern Turkey" and so on. Experts could get into big arguments about how we do so know X/no we do not. It would be lovely.

2. A movie about a women's hockey team that is not about them being women.

3. Book contracts for everybody! Well, not everybody. Everybody I like who writes books. Including me. And good book contracts, too, not the kind where I pay them $1000 and get stacks of my book with blurry printing.

4. A joke that begins, "A priest, a rabbi, and a mathematician." Somebody suggested that Mr. Ford is the person to ask about this, but I haven't seen him since and don't see him often. NB: This should be a funny joke.

5. A history of the rise of geek culture. (Note how I am not listing the finished versions of books I know you people are working on. Because I'm not eager? No. Because I'm deliberately not being pushy.)

6. An arctic fox charm. Kind of round, ivory-colored, curled in on itself, only slightly bigger than my whale-and-planet in "Warded." So I could wear Ansa Nikkanen's necklace from Thermionic Night.

7. Embroidered shirts and/or skirts that do not have spangles. Spangles fall off in the wash. I love the kind of embroidered shirts and/or skirts they're selling this year, but damned if I'm going to add three T-shirts a week to the hand-wash load just so that they last out the season looking reputable.

8. Chicken soup and oatmeal raisin cookies.

Hmmm. One of these things is not like the others. I guess I'm making chicken soup and oatmeal raisin cookies today.

What would you like, in the category of the first seven: reasonable-sounding things that you can't just run out and buy or make for yourself?

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Does yours have lemon?

[ktempest.livejournal.com]

I'll email my friend Lee. he's a scuptor and artist AND Asatru so he can probably envision that fox charm you want better than I. And maybe I can persuade him to make it for you. It will take me until xmas to pay for it, tho...

Yanno, #1 could be done easily. well, the set up could. it's just getting actual experts to come in and argue...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, the actual experts are the key point, I think.

[scott-lynch.livejournal.com]

I often wonder who I would have to murder to get a diet caffeinated grape soda.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

When we were touring my high school, my mom said, "You have soda machines? We would have killed for soda machines?" I said, "Who would you have killed?" And she said, fervently, "Anybody it took."

I don't like carbonation and don't do well with caffeine, so if you do manage to murder the correct person, I will give you my share of the diet caffeinated grape sodas. I would like to note that this makes it extremely unlikely that I am the person you should murder to get said soda.

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that I don't know anyone better suited to write #5 than you. Maybe Mark would co-author. (Note: it's possible that someone like Cory Doctorow would be better suited for such a book, but I don't know him, so he doesn't count*) Not that you need any more books to go on your "To Write" list, but still.

Also, I want to be able to get decaf iced tea without having to make it myself. This should not be nearly as difficult as it is.

Re #6: Are you thinking sort of like the Firefox symbol, only more arctic-y?

And is the silver dragon bracelet still on the list? 'Cause I always look for it when I'm in such a place, but have yet to find the right one.

*This time.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You don't know very many writerpeople, though, is the thing. It is on my list of books I want written, but I keep hoping someone else will do it first (as opposed to my novels, which I want to write myself).

Yes, the silver dragon bracelet is still on the list. Especially if it's solid and kind of the Viking prow kind of dragon. Especially now that I'm writing -- oh crap.

Ahem. Anyway, the Firefox symbol is a bit too stylized, but not a lot too stylized. And yes, more arctic-y, less, um, fire-y.

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

Especially now that I'm writing -- oh crap.

What did you do?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Something at least a book and a half away, so never mind.

Although I can hear exactly how you intone that phrase, and it makes me giggle.

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

Re: The history of the rise of geek culture, that sounds like the sort of thing my graduate program (http://web.mit.edu/cms/) gets involved in.

Thing is, CMS seems to be involved in researching all sorts of things along those lines (gaming, comics storytelling, fan-culture, etc...) and since I haven't even started there yet, I'm not entirely sure how well my research and classes are going to be able to acommodate a life-consuming project like that. (To say nothing of the other books I'm working on.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'll wait.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on the spangles, I keep seeing things I like and then finding out they have spangles. Yuk! Right now my #1 need is finding clothes that fit, I can afford, and that I like. Quickly followed by new friends and resolution of some of the bad juju going on with the old ones. And I'd like to start dating again; but I think it's early and I'm just being dull. Your websites etc. are good ideas, but I'm still wanting breakfast.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My father is alarmed at clothing this year: "Nobody looks good in those clothes!" he said. "Nobody!" Which is true. Here is my current clothes shopping ritual: I walk into a store, I look around, I exclaim, "Pink!" in a really disgusted voice, and I leave again. Wheeeee.

I hope that it gets better once they're doing summer and not spring.

Breakfast is also good, but you can bet that I've had breakfast before I post on lj, because if I don't have breakfast, I fall over. Which is not conducive to posting on lj, mostly.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big fan of pink either, but what really gets me is the oh-so-trendy combination of pink and green. I can't stand it!

Summer will be better, but seems to be composed of mostly blue, black and white.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, pink and green, blerg. Especially that grass-green that I can't wear. I won't wear celedon or mint, and I can happily wear olives and forests, but they have to make everything grass. Feh.

I can wear blue and black, and sometimes some white. What I cannot wear is just white. I too nearly match the outfit at that point.

[dendrophilous.livejournal.com]

I want grass green but they didn't have anything that color in decent styles, only too-casual stuff or stuff with huge necklines.

I don't like to think about what I want. A lack of rain today would be good, but it's too late for that.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

Hm. My stores seem to have lots of orange. Also green, and some turquoise. The skirts I just bought are pale apricot (with a brown and black printed pattern and a little embroidery) and turquoise (tiers but no embroidery).

My chicken soup (tomorrow) willl not have lemon but will have matzo balls.

And finally, what I really want is a line of clothing, or better several lines, with larger arms, armholes and legs to allow for women who work out.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I can wear orange, but I can't wear apricot. I look deeeeeeed.

Men who work out and who have certain genetic backgrounds sometimes have the leg/arm problem in fitted clothing as well. Very sad for all concerned. Some boots (not clothes, but still) are narrow enough that I wonder who their target audience is, because granted my legs are not birdy legs, but most American women are heavier proportional to their height than I am, and surely they have something for calves.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

The first time I went skiing the sales guy kept commenting how big my calves were and eventually put me in mens' boots because of it.

I was around 112 lbs. I was 5'1". I walked everywhere but didn't do weightlifting or anything like that. I mean, how big could they possibly have been?

Not to mention, way to please the customers, dude.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, I believe the polite word for a salesbeing there is "shapely" or "well-toned."

[sculpin.livejournal.com]

And while we're at it, I'd like a line of attractive, well-made women's clothing with some extra room in front. I'm about ready to give up and live in oversized t-shirts, or have everything tailored. And I'm not bizarrely busty, just a little bit on the stacked side. (Believe you me, it's overrated.)

This line is probably out there, but I haven't found it yet.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

And I'm not bizarrely busty, just a little bit on the stacked side. (Believe you me, it's overrated.)

My sister, you are among friends here.

No one ever wonders how I manage to stand upright; I'm not that busty either. Just enough to make nothing fit right, ever.

Well, not nothing. But it's difficult.

(One of my major problems is that I have a large enough cup size paired with a small enough band size that many bra manufacturers assume I don't exist. I'm too skinny for "full-figured," too busty for "normal." Fabulous. Clothing isn't actually made for skinny girls with breasts. It's made to make other people look like they're skinny girls with breasts.)

[sculpin.livejournal.com]

Heck, yes. I keep finding clothes that are cut or colored to give the illusion of a waist, when what I want is clothing cut with an actual waist.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes. Exactly so.

[pariyal.livejournal.com]

What would you like, in the category of the first seven: reasonable-sounding things that you can't just run out and buy or make for yourself?

A silver or copper coiled-dragon bracelet to go around my upper arm that fits.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Have you seen them that don't fit?

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

As someone who once participated on a website along the lines of #1 (on evolution) the problem is getting the real experts to take it seriously when in their career what counts are publications. So I now tend to try to find the scientific/professional publications in the area I'm interested in and piece it together from there.

It can be immensely time-consuming and frustrating, and it's not for people who don't pick up technical vocab quickly. But it's where the experts are, and the lovely fights (couched in even lovelier language sometimes).

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do know how to do research, and I do know that it's worthwhile to do so.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I sincerely apologise, I did not intend to sound patronising.

It is very strange re-reading what I've written. I somehow don't think of what I was writing about as research. I realise it is is research, but in my brain, that's a different thing, somehow.

Thanks for pointing out to me that I have a weird mental category of stuff-that-is-research-that-I-don't-think-of-as-research. Hopefully I can avoid future offense.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the apology; I appreciate your graciousness and also your original intent.

As for kinds of research, I got used to the contemporary-journal-articles kind when I was preparing to do the lab kind, but writing fiction can make for extremely broad types of "research." I'm curious now: what's your default kind of research? If you picture someone doing research, what are they doing?

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

I'm a scientist, so my default for research is either actual lab experiments, or hunting-through-journal-articles. I know that makes no sense given the above :-).

I think the difference is: I think it's research if I have a specific goal, for an externally-measurable task (so, get up to date with the literature on carotenoid cleavage in bacteria, or find descriptions of sequence alignment methods suitable for my second-year undergraduates to read).

But often I'm researching just to satisfy my own curiosity, and following stuff where it leads, and that doesn't feel like research. It feels more like reading friendslists in LJ. It's the stuff that's all grist to the mill of my attempt to understand, and there is no specific aim, although in the long run, both knowing lots of stuff and being able to find out lots of stuff are useful.

I hope that makes some vague kind of sense.