The Vision and the Void

We've got your family values right here

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:18:00 GMT

Just came across these incredibly funny graphics by alostrael, poking fun at the inconsistencies of certain Republican politicians in the US when it comes to sexual issues.

Just what I needed at the end of a week of much work and stress and little sleep: a hysterical laughing fit. I feel so much better now.

Thanks to thewronghands for the link. I recommend you not be drinking any liquids when you click on it.

Funkasia & Pride

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:07:25 GMT

Due to a mega work crunch, I will not be going to as much Pride stuff as I'd hoped to, but two things I will be going to are Funkasia tonight and the Dyke March tomorrow.

The Funkasia event tonight - which is free, and happening from 7-11pm, at the south stage of the Pride Festival area - has been really under-publicized and for some reason doesn't even appear on the Pride Toronto web site. And Funkasia itself, and its host/organizer DJ Zahra, doesn't have a web site of its own any more, since it's been on hiatus for the past couple of years. But back when it was a regular event, it was amazing. Awesome Indian dance music - Bollywood songs, bhangra, etc. - and just a huge amount of fun.

Anyone else going tonight?

Too. Much. To. Do.

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:13:17 GMT

I can has 36 hour day plz?

Or just stop time for a week or so while I get caught up. That would do it too...

Maybe more like a month.

More dog poisonings

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:47:15 GMT

Alert to dog owners in Toronto - in case you haven't heard, there's been another case of dog poisonings in a public park. This time it was Dog Hill, in High Park -- someone laced the drinking water provided for the dogs there with antifreeze, and two dogs died.

Full story

This comes after a few years ago, someone left bits of meat laced with pesticide around Withrow Park in the east end, another popular park with dog owners. And I think in between those two there was an incident in another park where someone scattered broken glass and other sharp objects in a dogs' off-leash area in another park, though I don't really recall the details of that one.

This incident hit closer to home for me than the others, though, because I've been to Dog Hill with Kiska. She's probably drunk out those same water bowls. Not recently, fortunately, but still...

No way of knowing, I suppose, whether there's one person behind all of this or whether they're all unconnected outbreaks of dog-hatred. The Star article I linked to above suggests that the Dog Hill poisoning was linked to debates over the boundaries of the leash-free area.

It certainly does seem like spaces for dogs in parks are a really contentious issue right now. When I last took Kiska to Hillcrest Park, the mid-sized park about five blocks south of my new place, the other dog owners there were talking about a public meeting they'd been to for residents of the area to talk about plans for the park, and how a huge shitstorm had erupted over what part of the park, if any, dogs should be allowed off-leash in. Currently there is a small off-leash area at the diagonally opposite corner of the open part of the park from the playground, but apparently that isn't far enough away for some of the parents, who are insisting it should be moved to the heavily wooded steep hill at the southern edge of the park, which you pretty much can't walk on without mountain climbing gear, and which is currently mainly frequented by drug dealers, and teenagers looking for a discreet place to drink and smoke pot. Did I mention that there's also a busy street at the bottom, so that if you slip and fall and somehow manage not to break your neck on the way down, you will probably be run over? Uh, yeah, sounds like a great plan...

They also mentioned that every attempt to discuss a leash-free area for Cedarvale Park, the much, much larger park to the north, has resulted in outbreaks of mass hysteria. (I thought Cedarvale already had a leash-free area, but maybe I was wrong.)

I just don't get it. There seems to be this assumption nowadays that dog owners and parents are two mutually exclusive populations, and the interests of dogs and kids are somehow diametrically opposed. Maybe I'm just old or something, but I remember when families actually had dogs. My family did, at least for a while, when I was a kid, and yet my sister and I survived. In those days, it seemed to be taken for granted that kids actually liked dogs, and that a pet was a good thing for a family to have. Now, apparently, kids and dogs are like matter and antimatter, and if you combine them in the same park, there are explosions.

The funny thing about all this is, no one seems to have told the kids that dogs are somehow antithetical to their existence. Pretty much every time I walk Kiska, I see little kids smiling at her, and sometimes asking if they can pet her. At the summer solstice ritual Sunday night, when Kiska was leashed to the feast table, two little girls were fawning over her the entire time, petting her and scritching her and giving her tummy rubs. They don't seem to have gotten the message that they're supposed to hate and fear dogs.

It seems to be just a certain type of crazily overprotective parent. Probably the same ones who are convinced that if their kids get to roll around in the grass or eat dirt or any of the other things kids have done since time immemorial, that they will immediately die unless scrubbed down with antibacterial everything. Likewise for letting them play with a dog, I guess.

I have no idea if that's who's behind the Dog Hill poisonings. Some people in the article seemed to pointing the finger at the environmental committee, who are apparently also opposed to dogs. And perhaps it wasn't either overprotective parents or overly militant environmentalists convinced that dogs are damaging the natural environment, but just some random cranky dog-hating psycho. Who knows?

It just seems like an almost inevitable extension of the bizarre extremes that debates about dog parks are going to these days. And it just makes no sense... High Park is huge. It's one of the largest urban parks anywhere. Nearly 400 acres! And while Cedarvale's not exactly on that scale (very few parks anywhere are), 36 acres is still not exactly postage-stamp size.* What the fuck is wrong with people that in spaces of that size, in a city that has probably more parks than any other city of comparable size in North America, people are so territorial that they begrudge every square inch of that space and can't handle there being even one small area of it where dogs are allowed to play?

* Source for area estimates: http://www.toronto.ca/parks/parks_gardens/

Bra sizing madness

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:12:30 GMT

The latest chapter in the ongoing saga of the Incredible Shrinking Woman. Also, further evidence that the fashion/clothing industry is insane:

Amongst the latest batch of stuff of mine that I picked up from chez kettunainen and optimystik was a tape measure. This morning, catching sight of it, it occurred to me that it had been a while since I last took my measurements. Also, that I have been finding my formerly best-fitting bra to be a little bit loose these days, and thus entertaining suspicions that I may have gone down a band size and/or cup size. Going down a cup size would actually be excellent news, in that it would make me a DD and thus back into the realm of being able to buy bras in normal stores.

So, I started measuring. First discovery was that yes, I am indeed smaller in all horizontal dimensions than last time I did this. The last measurements I can remember taking, a couple of years ago, were something like 44-34-47. That was after having lost some weight already.. Today's results: 42-32-42. I do believe this is the first time in my life that my bust and hip measurements have ever been the same. Also, it is no longer surprising to me that none of my pants fit any more, if I've lost two inches off my waist and five off my hips.

Next, the underbust measurement that is compared to the bust measurement to calculate bra size -- bearing in mind that just doing it on a chart is not always reliable, and that serious bra-fu is required if you want a really good fit. Anyway: 34".

So, I hit google and begin looking up bra size charts. The first one attempts to tell me that I am a 38D. This seems suspicious to me, so I experiment a bit and discover that D is the largest size it has - you could (theoretically) have a 20" difference between your bust and underbust measurements and it would still tell you you were a D. D is actually supposed to reflect a 4" difference. I have an 8" difference. Fail.

So I try another, from a site that I have heard before carries a wide range of sizes. That one lists an 8" difference as "FF". Never seen a double F before -- I was a 38F last I checked (having been sized by a bra-fu master at a store that sadly no longer exists). But cup sizes vary wildly between different countries: an F in European sizes (which rather sensible go through the alphabet in the normal fashion instead of randomly doubling letters) is an E in UK sizes, where they have double D and then go on to E, and a DDD in US sizes, although in my experience US DDD bras never actually fit me -- they seem to be designed on the assumption that anyone with large breasts is also large all over, probably due to the, er, peculiarities of the average American physique these days.

So I look over the rest of the chart, trying to make sense of this - to find that the version this site is using goes up to DDDD, which I have also seen, and then straight to FF without actually hitting E or F on the way. Who on earth thinks up these things? But it was when I compared their version of US sizing to the European sizing with which I am more familiar that the true WTF-ness of the situation began to sink in: DD = E, DDD = F, DDDD = G, FF = H!

H? H?! How is it even remotely possible that, having lost two inches from my bust since being sized as a 38 F, I am now two freaking cup sizes larger?! Although, according to this site's idea of band size, two band sizes smaller?

I check another site that deals with the full range of sizes for comparison, after an interval of trying a few more that either stop at DD or list any size larger than a certain cutoff as "etc." But it does indeed seem that an 8" difference between underbust and bust classes one as an H, though other sites say that a 34" underbust measurement is actually a band size of 38.

I measure again, a couple of times, trying to make sure that I haven't made some grievous error, and the first time get 42 again for the bust while the second time I get 41 (the underbust measurement stays the same both times). I guess it depends a bit on how you hold the tape measure. But even 41 would still put me as a G.

So I am apparently supposed to believe that while my bust measurement has gotten smaller, my cup size has gotten larger while my band size has stayed the same.

I think that instead I will choose to believe that bra sizing charts are fucking useless, and that I need to take foxesdaughter's recommendation of visiting her bra-fu master on the Danforth. Whenever I next have some disposable income, anyway...

P.S. Courtesy of poisoninjest, I have found the perfect userpic for posts such as this...

People EAT that stuff?

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:59:07 GMT

The 20 Worst Foods in America

This article is a really good illustration of the fact that there is something really seriously wrong with the typical North American (American, especially) diet. I know, not all food in chain restaurants is as crazily unhealthy as the things they've highlighted here, but a lot of it is.

It kind of took me back to when kettunainen, optimystik and I went to Ruby Tuesday's, an American chain, in Niagara Falls, back when we were having to make periodic trips across the border to keep Kettu's immigration status kosher while waiting for her application to be processed. I ordered a chicken salad, thinking it looked like one of the healthier things on the menu, and when it came, at first I thought they'd brought me the wrong thing, because I literally could not see any green on it at all. Then I took a closer look and realized that there was in fact a thin bed of lettuce at the bottom - overlaid with massive mounds of grated cheddar cheese, crumbled bacon, sugar-coated nuts, and deep-fried, breaded chicken bits. And a greasy, creamy dressing to boot. I later checked the nutrition info on their web site, and that "salad" had 974 calories, and 69 grams of fat.

And the scary thing is -- that wasn't the worst thing on the menu, not nearly. The Chicken & Broccoli Pasta, which I had almost ordered before settling on the salad as a healthier alternative, had a whopping 1682 calories, and 93 grams of fat. That's insane.

It's no wonder that we're seeing such a high death rate from "diseases of affluence"...

Laundry fail, Alexandra Erin win

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:26:47 GMT

I am very displeased with my local laundromat. VERY displeased.

I was doing laundry earlier this evening - having braved the mega thunderstorm to venture out to it because I knew I wouldn't have time tomorrow and it really needed to be done. The laundromat theoretically opens at 7am and closes at 11pm, but many nights I've seen the door still propped open at midnight, 1am or later. I think sometimes it doesn't close at all. Still, I prefer to err on the side of caution, so I made sure before going home to hang up my wet clothes that the ones in the dryer would be done before 11:00.

I come back at about 10:50pm to find... The door locked and no one there, though all the lights were still on. Whatever fucktard is in charge of closing it up at night, who apparently doesn't even bother to close it at all most of the time, closed it early -- without bothering to check whether any of the machines were still going or whether there was laundry in any of them!

So now I have to (a) sleep on a bed with no sheets tonight, since the sheets are in the damn dryer, and (b) get up at the fucking crack of dawn tomorrow to go retrieve my laundry, since I do not have sufficient trust in human nature to believe that it will all still be there if I sleep in and go later in the morning.

And of course, I have no way of knowing if whoever it is that doesn't bother to close it at the correct time actually bothers to open it at the correct time in the morning, or whether I will go over there at 7am to find it still locked, and have to keep checking back until it opens, rather than, say, retrieving my damn laundry, bringing it home, and going back to bed.

The good and bad thing about this is that the laundromat in question is owned by none other than... my new landlord. I don't think he opens and closes it himself - he doesn't live anywhere near here - but whoever he's hired to do it is a complete fuckup. Anyway, his ownership of the place is bad because the general level of disrepair and neglect of that laundromat bodes ill for this building, but good because at least I know who to complain to.

. . .

In completely unrelated news, I have previously recommended the web novels of Alexandra Erin, in particular Tribe, Void Dogs, The Three Seas, and Tales of MU. But she has recently reactivated a long-defunct one, Star Harbor Nights, which has a superhero theme, and like a lot of her work, tends to often satirize the genre it's based in.

So now I am catching up on the original series, which can be found on a separate site, so that the revived series will make sense once I get there. And while I like the vast majority of her writing, every now and then I come across a particular snippet that's just especially brilliant -- be it in the sense of thought-provoking, or just laugh-out-loud funny. Tonight's stellar quote was of the latter sort, and made me just about snort soymilk out my nose:

"A census taker tried to quantify me once," Rhyme said. "I ate his liver with an overused movie reference and a clichéd slurping noise."

If for some reason you are not yet reading any of the various works of Ms. Erin, you really, really need to start.

. . .

And now I should really go to bed, having set the alarm for four and a half hours from now. Laundromat: fired.

Strawberries & Asparagus!

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:48:23 GMT

OK, so who else wants to go to the Strawberries & Asparagus spring festival in Cedarvale Park tomorrow? I'll be going, as will kettunainen and optimystik, though I'm not sure what time yet. If there are other people who'd like to go, maybe we can make a group outing of it?

There will be live music, solar-power-cooled ice cream, a green business marketplace, electronics recycling, yummy food, children's activities, fair trade chocolate, Zen meditation and other cool stuff. It runs from 11 to 5 though my best guess is I'd be going up in the early afternoon, maybe around 1 or 2.

Two Questions

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:16:07 GMT

The first, for the vegan or lactose-intolerant or otherwise non-dairy-eating people who might be reading this:

Have you ever found anything milk-like but non-dairy that actually tastes good in tea?

Soymilk is good in coffee (especially the vanilla flavoured kind), but it has too strong a flavour for tea - it tends to overpower it. Plus, it is usually at least somewhat sweetened, and I never put sugar in tea, so having any degree of sweetness in there tastes deeply weird to me.

A while before moving out from my previous abode, I tried using some of kettunainen's Yü (basmati rice milk), and it was sort of OK -- in particular, the basmati flavour seemed to go pretty well with the fact that the tea was masala chai. But again, it had kind of a strong flavour, though not as much so as soymilk, and I wasn't sure how well that would work in other kinds of tea.

Right at this moment I am drinking tea with Rice Dream in it (another kind of rice milk), which is a bit of an improvement on either of the previous options, but kind of thin and watery.

Anything else I ought to consider trying? Other than switching to green or herbal tea or not putting anything in it, that is? For better or worse, black tea with milk has been a part of my life since childhood and is not something I am keen on giving up. And I don't especially like any kind of herbal tea other than rooibos, which is something that one generally also puts milk in.

In a way it's funny for me to be worrying about this, because I'm not really aspiring to absolute veganhood, so even if keep on putting regular old cow milk in my tea, I'll still have cut my animal product intake by about 90% since reading The China Study (insert obligatory you-need-to-read-this-book rant). Thing is, when I embarked on this particular dietary shift, my intent was very explicitly not to cut out animal products completely, but to relegate them to the status of, say, chocolate or ice cream. Infrequent, special-occasion foods, not a regular part of my diet. And having to put milk in my tea every morning and any other time I have tea feels like more dependence on dairy than I want. Thus, the search for alternatives.

Actually, the more I drink of my current cup of Rice Dream-laden rooibos, the more I think it's not so bad. But I'm still curious what other people do...

. . .

Question the second, specifically for female residents of Toronto,
In particular, female residents of Toronto who tend to be similarly well-endowed in certain respects to myself. To the point of having trouble finding decent-quality bras that actually fit in normal stores:

It has recently come to my attention that my beloved Super Sellers Discount Lingerie, previously the only place I knew of where one could get nice bras in my size at non-exorbitant prices, has disappeared. This is a catastrophe of epic proportions. (Yes, yes, I know, insert obligatory joke about epic proportions and the topic at hand.)

I really, really don't want to be stuck going to places like Secrets From Your Sister, which while they have a marvellous array of bras in all kinds of odd sizes, are also freakishly expensive. Call me crazy, but I think a bra should cost less than a DVD player.

Are there any other hidden treasures out there like Super Sellers, where one can find nice bras in a 38F or similar size, maybe even my beloved Chantelle brand, at a semi-reasonable price? That are perhaps even staffed by masters of bra-fu, who can size you relying more on actual skill and experience than on those cheesy charts the department stores use, which are not always reliable and don't go beyond DD anyway?

It is possible that this question might be becoming moot with my increasing weight loss, since my favourite Chantelle T-shirt bra has been feeling a touch loose lately. I may be en route to becoming a mere DD, or E in European sizes. But I don't want to count on that -- I'd really like to find someplace nice that has the full range.

So... any ideas?

Bisphenol A: Your Last Chance to Submit Comments

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:53:41 GMT

As most of you probably know, Health Canada proposed a little while ago to declare the endocrine disrupting chemical Bisphenol A (leached by polycarbonate plastic) a toxic substance, and ban it from baby bottles and infant formula cans. This is good. However, it's used in a lot more places than just that, including in a lot of food and water containers, like those clear plastic Nalgene water bottles and the plastic, and currently they don't seem to be in a hurry to ban it from those places.

According to ToxicNation.ca, Wednesday, June 18 is the last day fthat t he public has to make an impact on the federal government’s decision on how to regulate the toxic chemical. On this day the 60-day comment period on BPA closes and the government will begin reviewing the comments submitted by the Canadian public, stakeholders, and industry.

Send them a message now!

Toronto Farmers' Markets LJ feed

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 20:21:03 GMT

For those interested, I just set up an LJ syndication feed for news items from the Toronto Farmers' Markets Network web site:

to_farmers_mkts

Add it to your friends list if you'd like to get occasional updates on new markets, seasonal eating, special events, etc.

X-posted to buylocaltoronto

Intensive, yes indeed

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:48:23 GMT

Wow.

I just spent the weekend and then some (to be specific: Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings plus Saturday and Sunday daytimes) at the Radical Business Intensive, a really amazing business and marketing seminar for green or otherwise socially conscious business people.

My brain is now all explodey from being so full of information, plus I have a 600+ page workbook in a mega binder to keep me busy for ~~the rest of my life~~ the next several months, and an audio CD full of more stuff, and a whole bunch of perks from other seminar participants -- there was a lot of focus on building community and we were all encouraged to donate stuff to go into little loot bags we got at the end.

If you run any kind of business, and are at all a progressive/non-corporate/generally cool person, you really, really, really need to jump any opportunity you may ever have to go to this event or to hear Tad Hargrave speak in pretty much any other context for that matter. Or just check out his website and download the "Way of Radical Business" e-book. Caveat: the site is kind of a design nightmare and looks like a generic, cheesy marketing site, but he's a lot cooler than that. And does not in person look anywhere near as dorky as he does in the photo on the site. Seriously, he made anarchist jokes and wore a Utilikilt. Not your average marketing guru.

Did I mention that the seminar was pay what you can? Apparently he'll be coming to Toronto again in the fall, and does this in various other cities from time to time also. Massively recommended.

Bookshelves: fail

Wed, 28 May 2008 07:09:08 GMT

Well. There are now two partially assembled Ikea BILLY bookshelves in my entrance hall. Initially this filled me with a sense of accomplishment, until I got the part where I tried to stand one of them up (having had them lying down on their sides to assemble them.

Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself. First thing that happened was I got all the wooden pegs in (the first step in putting the frames together), discovered this made them into sort of tippy parallelograms, and quickly started trying to fasten in the little bolt thingies that looked like they were meant to hold them more securely. Checked to see what sort of screwdriver was necessary for this, and discovered that oh wait, these don't want a screwdriver at all.

Ikea: it's Swedish for HEX KEY. How could I have forgotten?

Off I go to see if I can obtain a set of hex keys from a corner store in my neighbourhood at 11:30pm. First, this involves trying to squeeze past/over/under/around/through the two partially assembled bookcases, which as I may have mentioned are in the entrance hall. Mostly blocking it. But I successfully got out. Sadly, the one with the large-ish hardware section did not have hex keys. Happily, the one with the almost nonexistent hardware section did. Go figure.

So, back to apartment, manage to squeeze through bookcases again, put in bolts, tighten bolts with hex key. All good.

Attempt to slide back pieces of bookshelves in along grooves placed there for that purpose. Discover that backs are supposed to be screwed down. Go looking for small package of screws I bought several days ago with the (correct) expectation I might be needing a lot of them. Cannot find.

Off I go again after squeezing through bookcases again, to get screws from the same corner store. In store, am affectionately attacked by an attention-starved ginger cat that wants to play and does not know the meaning of "soft paws!". Escape with only a few scratches, and a package of screws.

Back in (clambering through bookcases again). Set about screwing on back of first bookcase. Success. Then discover I positioned it wrong and that one edge was supposed to have slid under these little holder thingies on the middle fixed shelf. Oops. Unscrew, reposition, rescrew. Discover other part of bookcase back is in upside down. Thankfully have not screwed down yet. Have to move bookcase about three feet down the hall in order to slide this part out, though, as I originally put it in from the other end, which is now blocked by the one I did screw down. Successfully remove and reinsert, screw down.

Ikea: it's Swedish for "some assembly required".

Worry a little that things don't seem to be fitting together quite right, but what do I really expect from 20-year-old Ikea bookshelves? Everything's a little warped, so it's kind of like that Lovecraftian angles-are-wrong thing.

Move on to second bookshelf. Start to slide back piece on, then realize that the top shelf is in backwards. Oops.

Consider that maybe I really don't need to get these up and finished tonight after all. Go back to computer and try to do work. Get distracted by half-finished bookshelves in my peripheral vision. Cave and go back to bookshelf assembly after about two minutes of attempting work.

Remove all bolts from second bookcase, lift off side, turn shelf around, realize it's really supposed to be the middle shelf because it has those little holder thingies for the back pieces on it, swap middle and top shelf, make sure all the shelves are actually facing the right way this time, put side back on, put all bolts back in. Slide back pieces most of the way in, blocked by clamps holding damaged part of one shelf that is currently being glued back together.

Return attention to first shelf. Decide I am now ready to stand it up and add the four movable shelves that go on with little pegs in addition to the three bolted-on fixed shelves, so that I can at least unpack half the books tonight.

Can anyone guess from the above description what was wrong with this idea?

You may have noted that I was assembling these bookshelves -- very tall, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves -- in a hallway. A long, narrow hallway. With them tipped up on their sides. The bolts that hold everything together go in the side.

Both sides, to be precise. Not just the one currently facing upward. Oops.

Manage to lift the now relatively heavy, mostly-assembled bookcase a little way off the ground. Discover what happens when the underneath side is not bolted on. Drop now-half-falling-apart bookcase back down, with muttered expletives. Everything lands wrong and one back piece pops back out from under the little holder thingies. Manage to get all wooden pegs lined up again and bookshelf back together. Discover that back piece is now stuck out in a warped position and will not go back under holder thingies. Not unless I unscrew it again, slide it out, put it back again, and screw it down again. Do this.

Stare at bookcase which is now mostly assembled again, but still lacking any bolts on the underneath side, as is its companion with the still-being-glued shelf. Try to decide how the hell to get either one of them into a vertical position, or even a turned-over-to-the other-side position, so that I can put the rest of the bolts in, without having them fall apart in the process, all within the confines of a long narrow hallway.

Am fresh out of ideas as to how to do that.

Ikea: it's Swedish for "Fuck this, I need a drink."

Something I've kept meaning to post...

Tue, 27 May 2008 06:35:01 GMT

I've mentioned to a number of you in real-life conversation that I've lately been hooked on the works of a web novelist by the name of Alexandra Erin. And I keep telling people I'll post the links to her various ongoing tales (four of them that are at least semi-regularly updated) here one of these days.

Well, this evening she mentioned in the latest update to my favourite, Tribe, might be in jeopardy if it doesn't start attracting more readers, but if it does, might start being updated more often. So this seems to be as good a time as any to finally post those links:

Tribe: Fantasy in Miniature. As mentioned above, this one is my favourite. It's kind of a gritty inner-city dark fantasy with some really interesting ideas about magic, and a similar feel to some of Neil Gaiman's work. The "in miniature" of the title refers to the fact that it's an "experiment in serial micro fiction", in that it's made up of mini-chapters that are each 333 words in length. This is not as annoying as it sounds, because the story is so compelling (to me, at least).

I would like it even more if it were actually updated more often, which is why I am doing my part to try and promote it... Read, comment, let her know if you like it! Please!
Void Dogs. This one's more science fiction than fantasy, although it has elements of both. It's pretty much a space opera, with a somewhat Firefly-ish feel, except that the ships are powered by alchemy and there are other magical elements here and there. It's got some really interesting, quirky characters, and a fair bit of humour in it. I should probably mention that some parts here and there are somewhat NSFW, though, for those who care about such things.

You can get updates on your friends page by adding void_dogs.
The Three Seas is more classic, sword-and-sorcery-ish fantasy, though like most of her work it's still got its own quirks and is anything but generic. It's also probably the most G-rated of the lot, being less dark than Tribe and without the sexual elements of Void Dogs or...
Tales of MU (Magisterius University). Last but definitely not least, this is by far her most popular and most frequently updated story. The popularity may be in large part accounted for because a lot of it is, not to put too fine a point on it, porn. But not all, and those who start reading it looking just for that will probably end up disappointed by the amount of the story that's actually devoted to thinks like plot and character development, which is what makes it actually interesting.

It's about a university for magicians, but this is definitely not just Harry Potter in a slightly older age group (except for the last April Fool's Day update). It's set in the university's one residence for non-human students, and gets into a lot of interesting social dynamics regarding the treatment of nonhumans of various types by the dominant human society and by each other. There are also a lot of satirical digs at the fantasy genre in general and role-playing games in particular. And, as mentioned above, copious amounts of sex, most of it queer and/or kinky.

In the beginning I actually found Tales of MU kind of annoying because some of the characters came across as kind of shallow and stereotypical, but as the story progresses, they all develop depth and complexity. Highly unlikable characters end up displaying redeeming features, likable ones turn out to have major flaws, and sometimes it seems like almost the entire cast needs about 20 years of therapy (the author definitely doesn't shy away from dealing with disturbing issues, or making her characters intriguingly fucked up), but it's always interesting, and rarely predictable.

You can get updates on your friends page by adding talesofmu.

You can also, if you get hooked on all her stories like me, get an LJ feed of the whole lot of them by adding alexandra_tales. I think that's currently the only way to get notified of updates to Tribe and The Three Seas, since they don't seem to have LJ feeds of their own (yet).

With any of these, BTW, I would recommend starting from the beginning. Don't just dive in wherever the story's at now -- you'll just get confused. The first three are all short enough that you can get caught up in a few days -- Tales of MU, having upwards of 200 chapters thus far, will likely take you a wee bit longer.

Happy reading...

Things that are currently making me happy

Mon, 26 May 2008 20:23:03 GMT

Many things are making me happy today, even though I still have lots of work to do and stresses to deal with and what not. Here are some of them:

The side streets in my new location being so green, full of big trees and lush gardens, so that even though my apartment itself is right on the corner of a busy street and has no balcony or garden space itself, I do not suffer any lack of "green time" -- every walk with Kiska is restorative to me. (Interesting side note: there's actually scientific evidence that exposure to nature helps reduce ADD symptoms).
In particular, the fact that lilacs are currently in bloom.
Likewise, having two decent-sized parks very close to me, one a mere two blocks northeast, and another, about four times bigger, five or six blocks south. Also, a huge ravine about ten blocks north and another (part of the same riverbed) eight blocks east or so.
And the Wychwood Farmer's Market, just a couple of blocks east -- even though I missed the opening day of it last Saturday due to DrupalCamp Toronto and will be missing the next one due to the Radical Business Intensive. But both those events are happy-making in their own way.
And the fact that the Green Art Barns will be opening later this year, just a few blocks southeast.
Seriously, living here is the next best thing to living in the country -- but on a street with lots of cool little stores and restaurants and a 24-hour public transit line, a 5-10 minute ride from the subway. Best of both worlds.
Visits with Aidan -- I was there yesterday and will be again on Wednesday. I still miss being able to see him every day, but things could be a lot worse.

In particular, yesterday I found myself enjoying the way that he can managed to be insanely cute even when doing something really annoying. He had spilled water all over his shirt -- for some reason he absolutely loves drinking water from a glass, but hasn't quite got the process under control yet, so there's usually a lot of spillage. So I was trying to change his shirt afterwards, and got the old one off with no problem -- he's always happy to get clothes off him, but putting the new one on turned out to be, er, challenging. He may not have good water-glass control yet, but he has excellent reflexes and is incredibly wiggly, and can get both his arms in under the shirt and push it up off his head in much less time than it takes me to pull it down over his head, all while simultaneously twisting and wiggling in about 17 directions at once.

I think it took me about ten minutes to get that shirt onto him, but he was so cute in the way he fought it off that I was laughing the whole time and it all felt kind of like a game.
I am also happy that my eating habits have changed enough since the last point when I lived on my own that my fridge is half full of fresh vegetables, because the vegetable drawer is nowhere near big enough to fit them all.
And finally, the song listed in the music field of this post is massively happy-making. I was all prepared to hate the new version of Nightwish after all the drama with them publicly firing their lead singer, but when I first heard "The Poet and the Pendulum"... Oh Gods! *faints*

It's a 14-minute epic that's divided into several parts so that it's like a number of songs blended together, or maybe the separate movements of a symphony, given the level of classical influence. In particular, there's a part about a minute and a half in where the very slow and soft intro shifts into this breathtakingly intense sort of -- I don't know what to call it -- neoclassical explosion that's equal parts metal aggression and symphonic precision, with strings and guitars and what not blended perfectly -- words don't really seem to quite be able to do it justice. All I know is that no matter how many times I hear that song, that part always makes me have to stop whatever I'm doing, close my eyes, and just listen...

It's the musical equivalent of a really earthshaking orgasm. I kid you not. Listening to it actually tends to leave me flushed and hyperventilating, with my pulse racing... It's not the only piece of music that's ever hit me that way, but there are very few, and fewer still where the recorded version will do it -- usually that sort of reaction is more likely to happen with live music. If you haven't heard that song, and you have any liking at all for strange fusions of classical music and rock, you really, really need to. Preferably on good speakers, with the volume turned up really high.

And now that I have shared at least a representative sampling of the happy that is today, I should really get back to work. Because actually getting some long-overdue projects finished and being able to invoice for them would be another kind of happy, one which I am very much looking forward to.

Very disturbing news story

Mon, 26 May 2008 04:43:26 GMT

Teacher Lets Students Vote out Classmate, 5

A kindergarten teacher had all her students tell an autistic boy what they disliked about him and then vote as to whether or not he could stay in the class. Now he screams if his mother tried to bring him anywhere near the school.

Some people should not be allowed anywhere near children, much less allowed to teach them.

(Link lifted from gesigewigus)

WANT!

Sun, 04 May 2008 07:24:32 GMT

Did I mention there are three areas of the new apartment (kitchen, washroom and entrance hall) that have those sort of tile ceilings like office buildings do? Complete with fluorescent panels?

Behold: http://www.fluorescentgallery.com/

WANT!

And... their shipping prices to Canada are decidedly reasonable, despite the fact that these things must be pretty damn large. All in all, I am virtually certain that there will be three of these in my future. I just have to decide which...

Further update on Amber

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:25:34 GMT

Amber seems to be doing OK on her new medication regimen. She's eating well, and has put back on a bit of weight, her fur is a little softer, and she seems a little less agitated and has once or twice even let me sleep through the whole night without getting up to feed her partway through.

And I have discovered that the only good way to get a pill inside that cat is to crush it up and mix it into a little bit of canned cat food or plain yogourt. Anything else is an invitation to arterial bleeding (on my part).

Towards the end of this week she needs to go back in for a follow-up appointment and get her thyroid levels checked again to make sure the medication is having the desired effect.

Thanks to all who sent their good wishes/energy/etc.

Hopefully she will not be overly traumatized by moving next week...

Amber update

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:16:08 GMT

I picked Amber up from the vet today. The verdict is that it does indeed appear to be hyperthyroidism, although the test results are not really quite as clear-cut as they could be. Her thyroid levels were above normal, but only by a little bit - not as high as hyperthyroid cats often area. But Dr. Toole said that if she had been that sick with just about anything else, her thyroid levels would probably have been at least somewhat depressed, so their being higher than normal plus the other signs made it by far the most likely thing.

So I now have a little bottle of pills, from which I am supposed to give her half a tablet every 12 hours. If anything changes (other than just gradual improvement) I'm to let him know right away, and she needs to go back in two weeks to have her thyroid levels re-checked.

She seems much improved - when I let her out of the carrier, despite being in the room where she eats and spends most of her time, she ran out of the room and proceeded to run all over the apartment, going everywhere except where I wanted her to be, which is pretty much standard Amber behaviour. :-) Then she demanded to be fed, and after eating, she lounged on the floor in front of the bookshelves in the hallway, licking at the part of her front leg that was shaved for the IV with annoyance but otherwise seeming pretty much her normal self. Although those who know Amber will probably be thinking "You mean she's got a normal self?"

The down side: the vet bill was a lot more than I thought it would be. Who knew that full blood & urine workup + chest x-rays + a solid weekend in the hospital on an IV receiving various medications would add up to nearly $1100?! Guess that definitely rules out the radioactive iodine option - that involves a 1-2 week hospital stay, which would be freakishly expensive even aside from the actual treatment itself. Plus, they then have to stay in isolation at home for another two months or something like that, with their owner only being allowed around them for about an hour a day, because, well, they're radioactive. For a 16-year-old cat, really not such a great idea.

So, pills it is. And I am incredibly thankful that among Dr. Toole's many virtues is flexibility about payment arrangements, because I will not be able to pay off the majority of that bill until the Show Your Ontario money comes in. I made a partial payment with most of what I had left in the bank, and the rest will just have to wait a little while.

Thanks to everyone who sent energy, good wishes, etc. It was much appreciated.

Sick Kitty

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 07:22:51 GMT

Tonight I was having dinner at my father and stepmother's place, and fielding the inevitable parental inquisition about my breakup with kettunainen, when the phone rang -- Kettu was calling to tell me that the older of my two cats, Amber (see userpic) appeared to be very sick. She and optimystik had found her crouching awkwardly in the hallway, looking disoriented, and that when she had tried to run away from them, she'd been all wobbly and unable to balance.

I had been a little worried about Amber for a while - she's not a young cat, and while she's always been slender, lately she'd seemed to be getting disturbingly thin, and she's been getting increasingly weird and neurotic about food. She will only eat canned, not dry, and changes her mind regularly about what kind she likes. If she decides she doesn't like a particular kind (even if she liked it fine the week before, she will completely refuse to eat, and just wander around the apartment crying and scratching things, and eventually start vomiting clear liquids. Usually switching her to another kind works, but sometimes I have to try two or three.

Also, she will generally only eat in a very sheltered space (currently, under Optimystik's bed is her preferred location, and sometimes she won't even eat there unless I sit by the bed where she can see me until she's finished.

And - she needs to be fed small amounts every couple of hours, because she will only eat a little at a time, and if I leave food in her bowl either Claribell will eat it, or it will dry out, which will usually make Amber not want it any more. And yes, that "every few hours" means at night too. She gets me up in the night more often than Aidan ever has...

Despite all the food neuroses, she does seem to put away a fair bit of food, and yet she never gains any weight and if anything seems to be losing weight.

Anyway... I left right away and my dad gave me a ride back to the house to collect Amber, and then off to our very cool vet who routes the clinic calls to his cell phone after hours and lives above the clinic, so he can come down and see patients at pretty much any hour if it's important. Although it was kind of a stroke of good luck that we caught him - the phone forwarding thing hadn't taken properly and we weren't initially able to get through on the phone, but we went there anyway, and I finally got hold of the vet while phoning one last time from the parking lot - turned out he'd been out for the evening and had then realized the phone forwarding wasn't working, and stopped back in at the clinic just for a minute to fix it - and that was when we got there. Lucky for Amber.

She is now staying there for the night, on IV fluids since she appeared to be very dehydrated. I was right about the weight loss - she'd weighed 9.5 pounds at her last appointment and is now down to 7.2! That's a loss of about a quarter of her body weight - as if a 120 pound person went down to 90 pounds. She also appears to have developed a level 4 heart murmur, which could be serious and her heart rate was really fast. So they're running some tests and will also do a chest x-ray tomorrow morning to see about her heart.

The vet thinks that the major problem is most likely her thyroid - apparently when cats are seriously hyperthyroid, it can cause the kind of disorientation Kettu saw, as well as weight loss combined with insatiable appetite, restlessness, rapid heartbeat, etc. It's apparently fairly common in older cats. I'm hoping it is that, because compared to some things, it's fairly easy to treat. They usually just go on medication, though apparently there's also a radioactive iodine treatment available. But there are other possibilities, so we won't know for sure until the tests come back. At one point early in the examination he thought it might be fatty liver disease, which is what killed Bastian and sickened Miko to the point where she caught the respiratory infection that killed her, but when he took a urine sample he said it wasn't discoloured the way that urine of cats with liver disease usually is. (Thankfully!)

I am mainly just posting this to ask people to try and send a bit of energy or at least good thoughts in Amber's direction, and hopes for this to turn out to be something simple to treat, with a good chance of recovery.

Cool news on Bisphenol A

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:07:07 GMT

Remember my rant a while back on polycarbonate water bottles that leach Bisphenol A (and follow-up here)?

Well, check out this story in today's Toronto Star: The Hudson's Bay Group (owning The Bay & Zellers), Canadian Tire, and the company that owns several of the major sporting goods stores have all pulled all polycarbonate water bottles, baby bottles, etc. off the shelves. Mountain Equipment Co-op had already done that last year, and Lululemon says that while they won't pull existing product, they won't re-order them, either.

Health Canada has been debating for some while a flat-out ban on Bisphenol A, and I guess it's looking likely that it will go through. Large, relatively conservative retailers don't usually go yanking huge volumes of product off their shelves unless they're fairly convinced it'll hurt less now than when they have to do it later...

The evidence against it certainly does seem to be mounting up... The article mentions that a recent report from the U.S. National Toxicology Program found that it caused precancerous prostate tumours, urinary system problems and early puberty in rats even at low doses.

In case anyone missed the original post and hasn't read about this elsewhere, the water bottles in question are the colourful clear plastic ones, notably by Nalgene though I think there are other manufacturers who make them as well. And the same type of plastic is also used in a lot of baby bottles, which has got to be even worse health-wise considering how vulnerable a child's developing endocrine system is.

Better alternatives: Sigg or Kleen Kanteen water bottles -- both available from more places than just that site; that's just where we got ours. I <3 my Sigg.

Can't recall offhand which brands of baby bottles are Bisphenol-A-free, but there's a list available here (PDF download).

A non-breakup-related, non-moving related news item, for a change

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:47:38 GMT

A few years back, when I discovered I'd lost 15 pounds without trying, during the year following our acquisition of our dog Kiska, I decided that if just moving from an almost-entirely-sedentary lifestyle to one involving regular dog-walking could do that, perhaps more could be accomplished by actually trying to eat better and exercise more. And those of you who know me in person know that indeed, it could and was. Those of you who don't might have noticed the little item in my userinfo under "goals accomplished" that has an ever-increasing list of crossed-out numbers for amount of weight lost.

At some point, I arbitrarily set my "target weight" at 175, even though I knew that numbers aren't always meaningful. I liked the idea of having something to aim for, and I vaguely remembered that particular weight having felt reasonably good when I last was there (sometime in my late 20s, I think).

Today, the scale showed me the following number: 174.8.

*takes a bow*

The funny thing is, while I'm pleased that I finally hit my somewhat random target, in a sense it doesn't really mean anything. I'm not going to stop doing anything I'm doing now, because I'm not doing anything that was ever meant to be temporary. I'm not "dieting" and never have been. I'm not doing anything at the moment that requires a lot of work or seems like a major ordeal.

Now before those of you who are trying to lose weight and having trouble with it decide you hate me on the basis of the above, I don't mean that there was no effort put into the 40 pounds I've lost at any point - there definitely was. But it wasn't in following some kind of strict diet or exercise program - it was in working, slowly over time, at changing my lifestyle and establishing better eating and physical activity patterns. And the reason it doesn't seem like work now is because I've spent the past three years internalizing those changes and trying to make them just part of how I live and not something that requires conscious effort on an ongoing basis.

In a nutshell what I've been doing is training myself to eat differently and be more active. But for those who want some specifics... Here they are:

The thing that initially required the most effort was curbing my sugar intake. I have, or at least had, a massive sweet tooth. And every time I have ever tried to forbid myself sugar, I have failed, usually in an epic manner, and ended up bingeing on it more than ever before. So what I decided to do this time was not say "I will never have sugar again!", but instead "I will try to have a lot less sugar." And that appears to have worked.

Some people work well with absolutes, and if they try to give themselves a "less of X/more of Y" sort of directive instead, will end up using it as an excuse to change almost nothing. I am not one of those people. I am a person who hates absolutes and restrictions with a burning passion, and the minute I am told I can't do something, even by myself, I respond by wanting to do it more than ever. Giving myself ultimatums of that sort appears to be a recipe for failure.

So this time, no ultimatums. No absolutes. No telling myself, in the face of an ice cream craving, "No! You can't have ice cream!" But instead: "Hmmm, want ice cream. But I'm trying to have less of that. Maybe I won't have it today. Maybe I'll have it tomorrow instead." By letting myself know that I could still have what I wanted, just not necessarily right now or in unlimited quantity, a lot of the anxiety and resentment that have dogged my previous attempts to eat better were removed.
Further to the "Maybe I'll have it tomorrow" element of that, another thing I've been doing this time around is finding sneaky ways to make my own personality quirks and foibles work for me rather than against me. I am a huge procrastinator. Telling myself I'll do something "later" or "tomorrow" frequently means I forget about it entirely. Food cravings are often temporary, so for a habitual procrastinator to tell herself she'll have that chocolate, just "later" very often means that the craving passes and the chocolate is not had.

And if I do still want it hours or days later? Then I'll damn well have it. Part of the whole moderation thing is actually letting myself have treats now and then, so that I'll believe myself when I tell myself that yes, I really will have it later. But on the whole, this works out to eating a lot less of the things I'm trying not to. A lot less.
Also on the personality quirks front, I am very distractable. So sometimes I can respond to food cravings with "Hmmm, want chocolate. Hey, I wonder what's happening on the BPAL forums?" Or checking out the I Can Has Cheezburger lolcats feed or Tales of MU, or something equally likely to divert my attention.
I also have a tendency to forget about things that are not out in plain sight. Out of sight, out of mind. It is remarkable how easily I will forget that there is chocolate squirreled away in my desk drawer, compared to how it will haunt my mind if it's out somewhere I can actually see it. Likewise with treats that find their way into the kitchen - I will eat much less of them if they're tucked away in a cupboard somewhere.
I also can be a very picky eater on occasion -- I know it doesn't seem that way, because I am one of the few people in my circle of friends with no food allergies or intolerances or other major restrictions and when at other people's houses am usually content to eat whatever they eat, but left to my own devices I can sometimes be freakishly picky. This can be made to work for me too. "Hmmm, I want chocolate. But not that crappy corner store chocolate! It's got to be Green & Black's organic dark chocolate with ginger - nothing else will do! And damn, the health food store is closed! Well, maybe tomorrow..." This also ensures that when I do cave and have sugar, I enjoy it more because it's good sugar. The relative expense and scarcity of high-quality treats means I have them less often, and the quality means that it seems like more of a special occasion when I do.
Moving away from the process of turning my bugs into features, another thing that initially required serious self-discipline but doesn't so much any more is portion control. This is especially important with not-so-healthy treats, but really it's pretty important just with food in general. Restaurants in particular tend to serve huge portions a lot of the time, way more than anyone really needs to eat in a single sitting. And sometimes we absorb those portion sizes as normal and end up eating too-large servings at home too.

These days, when confronted with an overly large portion of anything, I start mentally dividing it before I even taste it. I have grown accustomed to thinking of most restaurant meals as two meals in one: one to eat there, one to take home for tomorrow's lunch. As with some of my other strategies, a little mind-hacking is important here. If I look at a big plate of Thai food and think "That looks so good, but I'm not allowed to eat that much. *sigh* I must put some of it aside..." I will be less likely to stick to it than if I think "Whoa, look how much they gave me! That'll make a great lunch tomorrow." The more I can mentally spin my choices away from being restrictions (you are Not Allowed to eat that much!) and into benefits (cool, free lunch!), the happier I will be and the more readily I can make it a habit.

This doesn't mean I never eat too much any more -- all of this is a work in progress, and of course I lapse every now and then. But now I'm so unused to eating huge servings (and in particular, huge desserts), that I tend to feel sick when I do eat too much, which acts as pretty good negative reinforcement ("Oh, Gods. Never again! *whimper* Note to self: cut! cake! in! half!").
When at holiday family dinners, buffet restaurants, or other occasions where there are lots of food items seconds on things are likely to be available and even expected, I try to initially put just a very little of each thing on my plate, less than I may think I'll want, because when there are a lot of different items, it adds up fast. And if I do feel inclined to have seconds, I'll wait a little while first, because sometimes you don't feel full immediately after eating but do a little while after -- it takes a while for your sense of fullness to catch up to what you've actually eaten. If I still do feel hungry after waiting a bit, I'll usually try to have just some of the healthier things. Again, it works best if I don't think of it as a restriction. Not "I really want more of $unhealthy_food, but I can't have that, so I guess I'll just have the salad. WOE." But "That salad was really good, I've got to have more of that!" I suppose it helps that I actually do like salad. :-)
On the physical activity front, there is less to write... I keep meaning to one of these years join the Y or something, but since my income is still pretty up and down, I've mainly been trying to walk more. Long dog walks, walking short distances that I might have otherwise taken transit for, etc. Also, trying to take the stairs instead of escalators in subway stations etc., unless I'm either in a major hurry or my knees and/or ankles are hurting me (I have arthritis, though it's improved somewhat as the weight has come off). Even with escalators I usually walk up them. Again, it helps to think of it in terms other than restriction. Not "*sigh* I guess I have to walk home from the subway again..." but "Yuck, I don't want to be on a crowded streetcar right now!" Or "Hmmm, I'm bored. Maybe I'll take a break from work and take Kiska to a park" instead of just checking LJ for the zillionth time.

I do still want to join the Y, but that doesn't mean I can't do other things in the meantime...
Also, I've found that the healthy eating and the physical activity are kind of mutually reinforcing. As my eating habits have improved, I've found that I have more energy, and when I've just been out walking, I don't tend to want to eat anything unhealthy. So it all kind of connects...

Can't say that all the above would work for everyone -- it's really a plan tailored pretty precisely to my own preferences and psychological quirks. But maybe it can at least be an example to help other people work out their own approaches that work for them. And besides, I've had people asking for a couple of years now what I've been doing that's resulted in this new thinner me, so it's about time I answered them...

Anyway... Like I said, not intending to stop doing any of this now that I've passed the magic 175, because really I'm not trying so much to weigh a particular number as to just have a healthier life. And thus far, it seems to be working.

One final note -- I'll probably post more about this at some point in the future, but I can't finish a post about healthy eating without adding that I've just finished a book (courtesy of northbard and tormenta, though I really must get my own copy so I can lend it to others) that has completely blown me away on the food/nutrition/health front: The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health by T. Colin Campbell. Everyone, and I mean everyone, needs to read this book. I'd already been trying to eat healthier for a few years now, and made considerable progress, but reading this has caused me to rethink some of my ideas of what healthy eating is, so further changes appear to be in progress...

Lest there be any doubt...

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:09:06 GMT

Yes, I did know that the Scriptorium's newly Russianized front page was an April Fool's joke when I posted about it. I was just hoping that the general atmosphere of paranoia engendered by the Russian buyout of LJ might make other people fall for it. :-)

The Scriptorium have always done something funny on April Fool's Day, so their site is one of the first I visit on that day each year. If you want to see some of their past ones, check out this post.

I think 2003 and 2006 are probably my favourites, though 2002 was pretty amusing too, in a punny sort of way.

Another Russian takeover

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:54:06 GMT

For anyone who was alarmed by the Russian takeover of Livejournal, check out what's happened to my favourite font foundry, the Scriptorium:

http://www.fontcraft.com

I hope this isn't an indicator of what we can expect to happen to LJ...

Baby!

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:29:47 GMT

Congratulations, tamago23!

And welcome to the world, Connor...