Some Things I Want And Won't Get Soon (in no particular order)

[mrissa]

1. A Batman movie starring John Cusack

2. A Kavalier and Clay movie starring John Cusack

3. Clotted cream

4. A consistent source for humorous SF (that is, SF I actually find funny, not "humorous" SF as it is often published)

5. A short, dark-peacock-blue Lycra tank dress in the same style as my black one

6. A short A-line denim skirt. Genuinely A-line, dammit, not a straight skirt with an A-line label. Everyone who has been asked, "Do you know why I will not be wearing a pencil skirt?" has correctly intuited the answer without hesitation (because I am not shaped like a pencil!). Also, no cowgirl or biker chick or hottest sandblasting pattern of the moment styling. And no writing on the butt: I feel confident that each and every person I see can form his or her own opinions on the said butt, if they feel it necessary, and will not need to rely on embroidered adjectives for help in the decision-making process. ("Is this butt 'juicy,' or not? Wait, it appears to bear some kind of relevant message....")

7. That jacket I didn't buy last year in hopes that it would go on sale, dammit.

8. A new digital camera that actually zooms

9. Two copies of The Stress of Her Regard, one for me and one for gaaldine

10. Enough sleep. I hope to go to bed alarmingly soon, but if recent days are any indication, it won't actually make me not tired tomorrow.

This is, of course, not an exhaustive list.

Comments

[orbitalmechanic.livejournal.com]

If you would sleep more, it would be even less exhaustive.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I'm not convinced of that any more. This whole fatigue thing does not seem to relate to being short on sleep, although of course it's worse when I am.

[timprov.livejournal.com]

What if it said "Geek"?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Do you honestly think people can't tell that for themselves?

[timprov.livejournal.com]

Isn't that true of the shirt too, though?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, well; if the skirt had the close tag for the open-tag geek indicator on the shirt, then maybe.

[gwynnega]

Everyone who has been asked, "Do you know why I will not be wearing a pencil skirt?" has correctly intuited the answer without hesitation (because I am not shaped like a pencil!).

Amen to that. The pencil skirt is not my friend either...

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

I remember reading a whole anthology of Isaac Asimov short-shorts that all had really dreadful shaggy-dog punchlines when I was younger....

Oh, the ones with the wish-granting alien? (What was his name... my old copies of Asimov magazine are all packed away so I can't conveniently look it up...) [Google Google Google] Ah yes! Azazel!

I think Connie Willis' short stories are often reasonably amusing. and sometimes Neal Barrett, Jr. writes something amusing too.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, Willis's screwball SF novels are sometimes all right by me, but I'm feeling dubious about her stuff after Passage. "And then they ran around the hospital halls and stairs some more!" Blerg.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I heard that it had an editor. I heard that whoever edited it made Willis cut a good deal of running around the hospital halls and stairs out of it.

I have no official source on that, just gossip.

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

It would have been much more effective a device if it had been trimmed back to about 30 percent of what it was. I can understand that she wanted the brain-hospital metaphor, because it was a good one, but I don't need to be beaten over the head by it.

The book still wrecked me, as I am a morbid little person who thinks too much about the topic. I won't reread it. But when I need to cry, I pick up Lincoln's Dreams, which seems to be in many ways a shorter, tighter working out of the same themes that appear in Passage.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

When I was fifteen-and-a-half, I was already shaped more or less like this. I went straight from "little girl" to "adult curves" without any stops at the leggy, coltish, getting-there stages in the middle. So pencil skirts have never been my friend.

Aren't the funny SF people you listed dead or in critical condition? Because I have some of each, but it doesn't get me any new funny SF. (And yes, I do read Terry Pratchett for funny fantasy; he, at least, seems to be still kicking.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, Sheckley was the "critical condition" I was referring to. He may have been upgraded from that lately, though.

Funny that you bring up Red Dwarf: timprov just ordered some of the DVDs. It's really more his and markgritter's thing than mine, but I'll probably end up watching them anyway.

[carbonel]

I have just (as of this evening) discovered that marscapone makes a reasonable substitute for clotted cream. It's a bit more sour than clotted cream, but when I put some sweetener in it, it makes a dandy dip for strawberries, and I'd be happy to put it on scones with jam (if I were eating scones, that is).

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Is the texture that close? I wouldn't have thought so.

[carbonel]

The texture is very close. It's a bit stiffer than most clotted cream, though clotted cream is variable. It's about like very soft cream cheese. The creaminess is just right, though.

[(Anonymous)]

I too discovered this a while back. The thing that I would say about marscapone cheese versus clotted cream, though, is that it has that tang, like plain yogurt has. I like the tang and enjoy the marscapone with some jam on a scone, and it seems to keep better than clotted cream, which is very nice.

Heathah

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Having not encountered the butt in question, all I can say is, I don't know what a pencil skirt is.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

It really is shaped mostly like a pencil. Very straight lines. Hard to take decent size steps in a pencil skirt.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I see. The sort you want is the kind that flares outward as it goes down, is it? I like those, those are cute.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes. It's called an A-line because it makes roughly the same straight-flaring shape as a capital A. Occasionally they try to trip you up by naming a piece of women's clothing something sensible.

[apis-mellifera.livejournal.com]

Funny, I bought The Anubis Gates today for airplane reading.

This, despite utterly loathing The Stress of Her Regard when I read it 12 or 12 years ago. (It is on my "to re-read someday to see if I really loathe it or if was just me being 20 and pretentious".)

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

I think you'll like The Anubis Gates, Natalie. I love it, and it's the Powers book most likely to be rec'd to lure in new Powers readers. But then, The Stress of Her Regard is high on my Personal Powers Ranking Scale, along with Last Call and Declare and the Blackbeard one.

*one-ups your Waterhouse icon*

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

I just wanna say...Amen to #6, sistah.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

I thought the whole point of pencil skirts was that they are shaped like a pencil on the rack but then are stretched over human curves to show them off. (In fact, I remember Nora Ephron writing of her girlhood how aghast she was to see a formerly tomboyish friend appear with hair curled and wearing "a pencil skirt, an article of clothing I had been told repeatedly I would not be able to wear until I had the hips to hold it up".) (It has been decades since I read Ephron's Crazy Salad, whence that quote. I'm fairly sure I could find a better use for those brain cells.)

Of course, there are still the poblems of looking like there are two puppies stuffed under said pencil skirt. Not everyone wants quite that level of display. And the problem you mentioned with not being able to take normal steps is the one that most keeps me out of narrow skirts.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The thing is, pencil skirts, like many extremely fitted garments, have to actually fit to look good. So while I'm not sure about the puppies (my pup sometimes tries to get under my longer skirts, but that's not what you mean, I don't think), it's not flattering to have something form-fitting not actually fit your form, no matter what form it is.

But yah, even if they cut them for my body, I probably wouldn't wear them because I'm too attached to walking normally. (When I was an adolescent, my mom worried about whether I walked like a boy. In fact, I do not. I walk like a girl who takes long, fairly quick steps.)

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

But however you walk is like a girl, right? :-)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

You got it!

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I am so with you on the humorous SF. Even stuff that is only humorous in moments. It is a genre that takes itself far too seriously.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'm not sure "takes itself too seriously" is the same problem I'm having -- the SF I read really doesn't, but that doesn't always mean it's funny.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

1. A Batman movie starring John Cusack

2. A Kavalier and Clay movie starring John Cusack

3. Clotted cream

Or just John Cusack and clotted cream...

MKK

[columbina.livejournal.com]

I would happily send you my copy of The Stress of Her Regard on Indefinite Loan, except that it is actually my second copy of the book and both copies have already gone on loan so indefinite that I don't actually remember where they went at this point. I suppose that may be the mark of a very good book - not just that every time I loan it someone ends up keeping it, but the fact that I was actually moved so far as to buy a SECOND COPY. (Declare is still my favorite Powers, with Last Call a second, but The Stress Of Her Regard is the first one of his I read and a sentimental favorite.)

Debby hasn't read it. I may need to go buy a third copy ....

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

See? One ought to have it.

6.

[themagdalen.livejournal.com]

That's it.

I love you.

Re: 6.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Heh. Thanks!