Five random things, doing what they do
Nov. 28th, 2007 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrissa1. My Onion horoscope for the week, copied and pasted rather than retyped because I just could not make myself replicate those mistakes any other way:
Your meticulous attention to detail willl once again ruin an other-wise fun and pleasureable pasttime.
Yeah, you know what? Guilty as charged, but shut up, Onion horoscope.
(I've never had a horoscope of which I said, "That's uncanny," before, and I'm not all that pleased that it's this one. Okay, a little bitterly amused.)
2. And speaking of bitter, I have had a nonstop craving for dark green leafy things -- bitter greens, mostly -- since before World Fantasy. We're going on six weeks of this now. I understand that I am not permitted to subsist on spinach, but -- waaaant. It has not yet gotten to the point where I am trying to gnaw my mother's curly fern, but this is one heck of a craving. It's not as though I have been neglecting the bitter greens in this interval, either. I just don't think I should have to have them for lunch and dinner.
3. You know that thing where you solve the last problem? Yah. I have finally managed to avoid having to cross out a hundred and one sentences reading, "He walked across the room to the window," from my rough draft. Sound the horns, bang the drums!...and use the bright green pen to write, "Huh? When did she get here?" and, "Place him earlier in scene," half a dozen times. The problem with excessive stage direction is the excessive part.
4. I finished making the pepparkakor, down to the bit where I wrote![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
markgritter's and Robin's names in frosting on their train cookies. It occurs to me that this is four years in a row I've done this for Robin. He is five years old. From his perspective, Christmas always comes with a train cookie Auntie mrissa wrote your name on in frosting, all the Christmases he remembers and most of the ones he can't. There goes my carefully constructed uncaring tough-guy exterior. (No, I totally had one of those! Really! It was around here somewhere...perhaps behind the sofa with Squiddie....)
5. The movie The Manhattan Project: this is awesome! Why had I never seen this movie before? It's not about the Manhattan Project at all, but it is about implausible uses of nuclear technology, and I am filled with the love that generally fills me when I watch '80s geek movies. I mean, it's no Real Genius. And you can drive trucks through the plot holes, as is generally the case with '80s geek movies. But the things they get right are worth getting right, and oh, the great fun!
(Obligatory Former Physicist PSA: people. If you are working with powerful lasers, wear your eye protection. Seriously. It does you no good hanging around your neck looking just as geeky as it does on your face. It is there for a reason. Use it. Also do not wear your contact lenses to Orgo lab. You know how there's that standard thing where you hear your mother's voice in your head saying, "Get plenty of liquids, and keep your feet warm," when you have a cold? Certain organic volatiles trigger my father's voice in my head saying, "Take your lenses out before lab! I really mean it! This is serious stuff; do you know what it could do to your eyes?" And then he told me. So. Also do get plenty of liquids and keep your feet warm when you have a cold; my mom was right. It's just not as relevant to the immediate situation.)
Your meticulous attention to detail willl once again ruin an other-wise fun and pleasureable pasttime.
Yeah, you know what? Guilty as charged, but shut up, Onion horoscope.
(I've never had a horoscope of which I said, "That's uncanny," before, and I'm not all that pleased that it's this one. Okay, a little bitterly amused.)
2. And speaking of bitter, I have had a nonstop craving for dark green leafy things -- bitter greens, mostly -- since before World Fantasy. We're going on six weeks of this now. I understand that I am not permitted to subsist on spinach, but -- waaaant. It has not yet gotten to the point where I am trying to gnaw my mother's curly fern, but this is one heck of a craving. It's not as though I have been neglecting the bitter greens in this interval, either. I just don't think I should have to have them for lunch and dinner.
3. You know that thing where you solve the last problem? Yah. I have finally managed to avoid having to cross out a hundred and one sentences reading, "He walked across the room to the window," from my rough draft. Sound the horns, bang the drums!...and use the bright green pen to write, "Huh? When did she get here?" and, "Place him earlier in scene," half a dozen times. The problem with excessive stage direction is the excessive part.
4. I finished making the pepparkakor, down to the bit where I wrote
markgritter's and Robin's names in frosting on their train cookies. It occurs to me that this is four years in a row I've done this for Robin. He is five years old. From his perspective, Christmas always comes with a train cookie Auntie mrissa wrote your name on in frosting, all the Christmases he remembers and most of the ones he can't. There goes my carefully constructed uncaring tough-guy exterior. (No, I totally had one of those! Really! It was around here somewhere...perhaps behind the sofa with Squiddie....)5. The movie The Manhattan Project: this is awesome! Why had I never seen this movie before? It's not about the Manhattan Project at all, but it is about implausible uses of nuclear technology, and I am filled with the love that generally fills me when I watch '80s geek movies. I mean, it's no Real Genius. And you can drive trucks through the plot holes, as is generally the case with '80s geek movies. But the things they get right are worth getting right, and oh, the great fun!
(Obligatory Former Physicist PSA: people. If you are working with powerful lasers, wear your eye protection. Seriously. It does you no good hanging around your neck looking just as geeky as it does on your face. It is there for a reason. Use it. Also do not wear your contact lenses to Orgo lab. You know how there's that standard thing where you hear your mother's voice in your head saying, "Get plenty of liquids, and keep your feet warm," when you have a cold? Certain organic volatiles trigger my father's voice in my head saying, "Take your lenses out before lab! I really mean it! This is serious stuff; do you know what it could do to your eyes?" And then he told me. So. Also do get plenty of liquids and keep your feet warm when you have a cold; my mom was right. It's just not as relevant to the immediate situation.)
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 09:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 10:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-29 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 10:09 pm (UTC)I have always been *very* fond of that warning sign.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 10:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 10:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-28 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-29 04:07 am (UTC)My store of advice from parents goes:
Don't wear underwear with holes in it, you'll get killed in a car crash and everyone will see your tattered underwear.
It's a bad idea to fall asleep with bubblegum in your mouth.
Lather, rinse, but... do not repeat!*
Never wear contact lenses in chemistry lab.
Drip the damn grignards, don't open the sep funnel wide and let 'er rip.
Always vent your sep funnel after shaking.
Re: Robin-- this is true, and he was just asking if he was going to get his own Christmas cookies 'with his name on' this year. I say you should make him read you a book before you let him have it.
*...okay, not exactly, but "I bought a car, it is blue." Doesn't scan as well...
no subject
Date: 2007-11-29 01:06 pm (UTC)Also, "I bought a car, it is blue," is one of those things that's permanently funny. Every time I hear or read it. Always funny.