Below are the most recent 19 friends' journal entries.

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012
inaurolillium	1:34p	Mad Gastronomy has struck again! I'm trying to build up a bento stash again, because it's helpful to have stuff that's basically ready-made easy to hand. Yesterday, I had it on my list to make a whole bunch of stuff: onigiri, meat rolls, buffalo soboro, and some kind of mini patties. I already had a crockpot full of chickpeas, so I thought I'd use those for a base. And from that started a four-hour culinary odyssy of trial and error and adding stuff and re-processing stuff and adding more stuff and frying stuff and going to get Kate because I'd lost all perspective and needed someone else to taste them and adding things and frying some more, that ended up with the following reasonably tasty things. (It took so long that nothing else except the rice balls got made, and I made those much earlier.) Keep in mind, this is not an actual recipe, it's more like a better-organized accounting of what I ended up making, inspired by falafel and Maki's green pea mini-burger. This batch of base was enormous and would probably have ended up making about 30 minipatties. I stopped making them after a while, and have other plans for the rest of the base, though. Garlicky curried chickpea fritters 2 1/4c cooked chickpeas 2T garlic chives half a large onion 3 cloves garlic 1/4c flour 3/4c flaxseed meal 2T curry powder salt and pepper to taste 1/2c cooked quinoa mixed black and white poppy seeds, toasted, maybe a quarter cup peanut or corn oil and toasted sesame oil for frying (reminder: sesame oil has a low smoke point) (next time, I want to add dried onion or shallot flakes to add to sesame seeds) Process everything but the quinoa and sesame seeds until it's a thick paste. Stop to scrape down the sides a few times. Put it in a separate bowl and fold in the quinoa. Let sit for about 20 minutes, to thicken. It should be thick enough to roll into sticky balls. If not, add more flaxseed meal. Scoop out heaping tablespoons of paste, roll them into balls, flatten slightly, and dip into sesame seeds on both side. Gently lay into 1/4" of hot oil in a skillet (4 parts peanut or corn to 1 part sesame). Fry until a deep crispy brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels. I want to drip them in sri racha (aka red rooster sauce, aka hot cock sauce), or in some kind of tangy yogurt sauce, maybe with lemon and/or sumac (because I have sumac, and it's tart). This is pretty much the beta version of the things. If you decide to play with it, let me know what you do and how it works, please. Oh, you might possibly want instructions on cooking chickpeas or quinoa; Chickpeas: Take some dried chickpeas and soak them overnight. Dump that water off, just cover them with some more, add salt, and cook all day in a crock pot, until they're tender. Quinoa: Take some quinoa and twice as much water or broth or any tasty liquid, plus salt. Put it in a pot with a tight-fitting lid. Simmer 10 minutes, remove from heat, cover tightly, and let sit for 20-30 minutes, or until it's soaked up most of the liquid. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 28th, 2012
immlass	10:46a	Weekend update Things we did on the last weekend of Michael's class break: Houston's Downtown Aquarium was a huge disappointment after the aquarium in Atlanta. The shark exhibit was the best thing about it, and you had to sit in the train and get moved along through it instead of just standing under the sharks. The creatures were impressive, though. The inside exhibits were meh, and the white tigers (which don't belong in an aquarium) were in a faux ruined maharajah's palace that left me icked on a cultural appropriation level. I can't recommend it and have hopes for the Dallas Aquarium, which doesn't appear to be run by Landry's. The Houston Museum of Natural Science, by contrast, costs an arm and a leg as always, but they have some great exhibits this summer. We saw the Titanic artifact exhibit, which was very well done if somewhat creepy, the Chinese tomb artifact exhibit, which was smaller but also very informative, and the members preview of the Paleontology Hall, which was amazing. Once it's open, later this summer, we'll be heading down to simply spend a whole day wandering through it instead of breezing in and out the way we did today. There's also a small, and free with exhibit halls, exhibition of carved gemstones that's worth your time. I really do feel nickled and dimed when I go there, even with a membership (yesterday cost us $43 as members) but I felt like we got 4+ hours of entertainment easily. Other things we did: attended a birthday party for one of the people I'm gaming with online, had lunch with Greg and Elizabeth, visited my favorite jewelry shop, and had the least competent waiter I think I've ever had. Overall, it was a great weekend. I'm glad we have another day off before returning to our regular schedule and getting back to school this weekend. This entry was originally posted at http://immlass.dreamwidth.org/859920.html. Comment here or there. Current Mood: tired (2 Comments |Comment on this)
javenallese	8:12a	Memorial Day I know this is meant to be a patriotic day, but after some thinking I decided to transcribe the following from a balloon that our dogs alerted us to on the night of Mother's Day. It's still a memorial, just a bit different. These were written on two sheets of long Peanuts stationery with the quote "I don't know what you're talking about... I'm too young and innocent." Any misspellings and grammar errors are a result of transcription, the age of the writer and/or not my not knowing how to get a tilde. Vita these are for you. Mama Hoy y sie mone te recuerdo y se que estas al ladu mia y de tus nietos Romel Jr., Hans, Jimmy Guer hoy estoy al ladu de Romel warda en el bueno me ho ayudado mucho con los ninos y me ama yo ya lo he perdonado mama gracias por aus consejos y tu amor porace huy siemone estoy ay ladu de no so trus Happy Mothers Day!!! te pido tu interasion ante nuestro padre & Jesus por las situaciaciene que estamos pasando en nuestra vi ca para que hoy siempre la felicidad prosperidad, fait, sabidonin este en mi familia y mi relacion con Romel warda gracias mama por tus con sojos y por sue siempre has sidu una excelence mama a si ej Amen Hi Vita! I miss you! I wish we can see each other. I know that we will meet again. And Happy Mother's Day! We all miss you. I thank you taking care of me when I was young. I miss you and love you. Hans Hi Vita I miss u I wish we can see u I love u so much! and Happe Mather's Day. I miss u Jimmy Hi Vita I really miss you I really hope you were here so we can celebrate mothers day to gether it would be so fun but I know soon we will be together and then we will celebrate mothers day together and I hope with my heart you will like this note I love you very much I hope I can see you soon love you! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 24th, 2012
matociquala	12:21p	there will always be a faster gun. but there'll never be another one like you. Cover art for my novelette "Faster Gun,"  (Working title: "John Henry Holliday is Sick of the These Time-Traveling Assholes") forthcoming on Tor.com this summer. The artist is Richard Anderson. Current Mood: pleased (27 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012
matociquala	9:01p	i just know that i'm harder to console I'm working on "The Deeps of the Sky" tonight, and generating a regular festival of Words Word Don't Know: luminesced, tropopause, sheeny, thicks, unnavigable, dartlike, Meanwhile, I had a little argument with myself on twitter as to whether I should use some modestly bogus science to create a cool special effect. I went with it. ;-) Now I'm stopping because I have to figure out how the protagonist intervenes to stop the Bad Thing from happening, or how he mops up afterward... Oh, I might have just done so. Woot! Current Mood: mellow (4 Comments |Comment on this)
immlass	10:04a	Weekly media report Vacation means never catching up on your to-read pile Books: - Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness, by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Finished this finally and I'm glad I read it but I found it really problematic. I can't recommend it to someone not already into meditation. Movies/TV: - None! Music: - Little Boots, Illuminations EP. Includes two songs from her album but the other three are great, including a cover of Freddie Mercury's Love Kills. - Garbage, Not Your Kind of People. It's a Garbage album. To me, they've evolved their sound a little, but it's definitely an evolution rather than an abandonment of their last couple of albums, with an emphasis on more modern production (surprise!). A lot of people don't like their third and fourth albums and therefore think an evolution from them isn't any good; I liked them fine and enjoyed this album quite a bit. - Carolina Chocolate Drops, Leaving Eden. I can't figure out why I didn't listen to this sooner. I really like the cover of You Be Illin but the rest of it is pretty good too. This entry was originally posted at http://immlass.dreamwidth.org/859777.html. Comment here or there. Current Mood: tired (3 Comments |Comment on this)
skzbrust	2:19a	Need yet another translation to Ancient Greek I’m looking for the ancient Greek for: We can do better. In English, there is some ambiguity there (We meaning us?  We meaning humanity?  My group can do better than your group?).  I don’t know if those ambiguities would translate, but, if so, I want them.  If not, I’ll chose the best meaning for my evil purposes. Any help would be appreciated. Originally published at Words Words Words. Please leave any comments there.
inaurolillium	12:43a	I have another blog. I hope to be updating there fairly frequently for as long as I can keep it up. Almost certainly more often than I do here, for a while. It's a Fat Acceptance blog, me babbling about being fat and food and the politics of both. You can expect some moderatelly epic rants. Check it out if you feel like it. Fat Carries Flavor (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012
immlass	9:39a	M83 & I Break Horses at Stubb's M83 with I Break Horses at Stubb's. May 18, 2012. This was a disappointing show for us despite the good reviews elsewhere. We were both wiped out and Stubb's, which is at best a mediocre venue, was full of douchebags and smokers, plus the heat was making me ill and couldn't be doing any better for Michael, who's more vulnerable to it than I am. I really liked I Break Horses' album and was very annoyed that the sound was so crap for us even in our usual spot by the sound booth. The bass was high enough that I had earplugs in from the first song, and the vocals were so low in the mix that they were inaudible with the earplugs. Given that the problem solved itself when M83 came on, it was clearly an engineering issue of setting the board up for the main act. The fact that I couldn't get any enthusiasm up for a band whose music I already knew and enjoyed is an indictment of the live performance, but I don't think it was the band's fault. Because we were so tired and fried, and because the band came on late (15 minutes, not too bad as band times go) we only caught the first half-hour of M83. If I could have sat down, I would have managed the whole show, but we ended up in the back on the hill to get out of the press of the crowd, listening to the douches yammer on about bodily functions. The light show from the stage was great, particularly compared to the LZR-epilepsy-inspiring lights for I Break Horses, and the band seemed. The sound was much improved, too. The physical conditions were just too bad for us to stay on, though. I am very much looking forward to seeing M83 again at ACL, although by then I hope to have concert binoculars. I wish the conditions could have been better this time. Also, unrelated: M83 completes my 25 new bands requirement for this bucket list, so I've marked off one more item in my 101 in 1001. This entry was originally posted at http://immlass.dreamwidth.org/859475.html. Comment here or there. Current Mood: productive (Comment on this)
scott_lynch	12:46a	THE VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE by A.E. van Vogt It's been a while since I bored into a book like a hopped-up literary woodpecker, so here's some brain spillage originally written last year and never posted. Left: "Black Destroyer," 1939 Right: Current edition from Orb Books. Hot jets, Kinnison! What a jaunt in the way-back machine this is. I first became aware of The Voyage of the Space Beagle via Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials as a kid, and once again waited a mere two decades before reading the source material. At this rate, I'll have all of my seventh-grade math homework turned in by December, 2013. Voyage is a 1950 fix-up of four previously published short stories, forming a loosely chronological account of the titular Space Beagle's multi-year exploration beyond the confines of the Milky Way. Its thousand-man crew, chemically castrated for the duration to keep their minds firmly on Doing Science, is preyed upon by a series of increasingly dangerous creatures, and must also deal with internal pressures, scientific disputes, and a case of dreaded SPACE MADNESS. The Voyage of the Space Beagle was influential as all hell, out of proportion to what's actually on the page. Philip K. Dick claimed van Vogt as a major influence; so did Harlan Ellison. You can see it here, a distinct flavor that was carried into Ellison's early SF work. You can also see this book's profound effect on Star Trek, with its strange planets, predatory aliens, and mysterious threats to the ship. Van Vogt even took legal action against the producers of the 1979 movie Alien, a suit that was settled out of court, based on arguable similarities between xenomorphs and his own egg-implanting Ixtl. Voyage is an affable relic of the Big Science Done Big era of SF. The ship jaunts about at hyperluminary speeds, courtesy of Whoosh-Zoom engines powered by authorial whim. There are all the expected toys... gigantic heat-rays, semi-portable atomic furnaces, visiplates, vibrator guns. It has the same ludicrous-but-lovable feel of Doc Smith's Lensmen series, where scientific progress is almost always just a matter of dumping more power into a bigger thingamajig (if you yelled "BUS BARS!" just now, bless you). What it isn't, curiously enough, is a true log of a voyage and its voyagers. The episodic nature of the story would be less stark if there were some context provided, some glimpse of home, some notion of how the Space Beagle compares to anything else humanity is doing. Exploring vacuum in a vacuum is not as interesting as it could be. No real narrative integument was provided when these short stories were stitched into the vague shape of a novel. Also, the real heart of the book, for which the voyage is merely a framing device, is how an advanced interdisciplinary approach to the sciences called Nexialism proves the best solution to each of the Beagle's challenges when the more stratified and traditional sciences allegedly fall short of the big picture. This is all well and good as far as hobbyhorses go, but it would have helped the story if some of the solutions implemented to fend off each alien attack weren't so conveniently dim-witted. For example, in the novel's first major incident, adapted from the short story "Black Destroyer," a panther-like creature called coeurl feigns harmlessness to get aboard the Beagle. Coeurl is actually a ravenous, ultra-strong, life-draining predator, with the ability to detect and manipulate energy using whisker-like appendages. It can neutralize the deadly force of human weapons, a fact the humans realize once the thing is on the loose and killing people. So, when coeurl (constantly referred to by the men as "pussy")* locks itself in the Beagle's engine spaces, what do they do? Do they even attempt to poison it? To asphyxiate it? Nope. They wheel out their gigantic heat-ray projectors and start melting their way into the engine room. Yes. To deal with an energy-manipulating creature, they hurl more energy at it! While it's mucking with the ship's engines, no less. The Beagle is described as having a truly impressive workshop capacity, but even so, you'd think the notion of blasting apart your own engine compartment when your ship is thousands of light-centuries from home would give sober and non-libidinous men pause. What do they expect to do if they melt their propulsion center, break out the oars? There is also a puzzlingly gimlet-eyed overuse of purely speculative social science (though van Vogt deserves props for making his social scientist, Korita, Japanese in a time when the Japanese were not exactly sympathetically portrayed in much American media). Korita is constantly brought on stage to speculate on the social structure and cultural foibles of the singular aliens the Beagle encounters, always in the complete absence of any shred of context or evidence. Yet Korita is made to accurately diagnose potential weaknesses in the hearts and minds of these creatures (nobody even brings up the possibility that these entities might be outcast or atypical) This ain't science, even in a context that generously allows for atomic rayguns and Whoosh-Zoom engines. It's bullshit without a scaffold. Despite this, The Voyage of the Space Beagle still moves smoothly across the eyeballs in a way too many of its contemporaries couldn't aspire to even when they were fresh. It's reasonable and penetrable fun; penetrable, perhaps, because it had such a hand in defining a certain geometry of space opera still quite familiar to us decades later. Damon Knight was often criticized for his perceived harshness toward van Vogt's work, but I think Knight judged fairly in 1950 when he wrote: "...this department's thesis on van Vogt is (a) that the man has a very respectable talent as a writer, and (b) that he consistently misuses it." Van Vogt operated energetically in both the thoughtful and thoughtless modes of invention, and if he fell short of constructing mature narratives, at least he had the ability to occasionally evoke real feelings of mystery and awe. ***** *It is an exceptionally juvenile cheap shot, I admit, but it's difficult to keep a straight face at frequent reference to how the voyagers "beat pussy" and "chased pussy off the ship." They're two million light-years from the nearest woman and drenched in libido-deadening drugs; no shit they chased pussy off the ship. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 21st, 2012
immlass	9:21p	Art weekend This is about the art portion of the weekend. I'm going to write about M83 and I Break Horses tomorrow. Andy Warhol: Fame and Misfortune and Roualt's Miserere at the McNay: We went down to the McNay last Thursday to see the Warhol exhibit, which was pretty interesting. What I realized as I went through the exhibition was that it was about a phenomenon of modern life that I really don't like. Also, for all that I think Warhol's art is interesting enough and all right aesthetically, his overall themes don't make the sort of art I want to live with every day. Rouault’s Miserere, by contrast, was unexpected and fascinating and really worth my time. I wish I'd had longer to sit with it and hope I can get back before it closes at the end of July. Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties: This was the exhibition we went to the DMA for. Again, a lot of it was interesting, but for me it was more about the historical artifacts than the aesthetics of a lot of the paintings, which I didn't care for. I did like the photographs and sculpture as groups better than a lot of the paintings, though. Overall it was worth seeing, and I wish I'd had more time to poke around in the museum. The Age of Impressionism: Great French Paintings from the Clark is the current exhibition at the Kimbell and we liked it well enough that we joined when we got there on Sunday. I had gotten pretty burned out on Impressionism for a while, but this was a good enough exhibition to overcome my feelings of "been there, done that, seen it before". We also wandered through the permanent collection at the Kimbell, which had rotated paintings through since the last time we'd been. The Kimbell is a real treasure and I'm glad we've started visiting it. We didn't join the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth but we did have brunch there (recommended, especially the artwork-inspired cocktails) and took a docent-led tour of the permanent collection, which I recommend if you get a chance. The building is also gorgeous and worth the tour simply to explore. It's walking distance from the Kimbell (and the Amon Carter, which we didn't have time for) so there's a day's worth of excellent museums in the area. Our last stop on Sunday was The Crow Collection of Asian Art, which is across the street from the DMA. There are several exhibitions right now: a fabled journeys exhibition, which had some fascinating artifacts, a tantric arts exhibition that didn't do much for me, a jade exhibition which has fantastic objects but the curatorial direction seemed a little high school aimed for my taste, and a fantastic exhibition of digital photographs from the subcontinent with almost painterly lighting and details. The last exhibit was the unexpected winner and a nice close for the weekend's worth of art. This entry was originally posted at http://immlass.dreamwidth.org/859390.html. Comment here or there. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Sunday, May 20th, 2012
inaurolillium	2:19a	Just a quick moment of education for the world: Argumentum ad hominem, aka an ad hominem attack, does not mean a personal insult. It means when some personal attribute of the person making the argument is used to negate the argument without addressing it. "Your momma dresses you funny, what the hell do you know about clothes," and "Of course you'd say that, you're gay, you'll say anything to get marriage equality" are ad hominem arguments. "You clearly do not understand anything that's been said, because you keep coming up with straw man arguments to shoot down" is not. I know it's difficult for people to understand the difference, but just because someone said something that hurt your feelings doesn't mean it's an ad hominem, and doesn't mean that you get to just wave it off by calling it one. Thank you. This message brought to you by stupid arguments with people on the internet. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, May 18th, 2012
scott_lynch	7:03p	Bullet Points of Interest I am not playing Diablo III. I don't have much time for a new game at the moment (which is also why I'm not playing The Old Republic), but I'm pretty sure I could have found some intermittent pockets of time... if not for the fact that the game's DRM requires constant online connection, even for solitaire play, making it vulnerable not only to the usual bugs and tribulations of new software but to fluctuations in connectivity at both ends of the line (and indeed, the launch-day strain on Battle.net wasn't pretty). I hear expectedly good things about the gameplay, but I don't have any interest in adding copious amounts of extra teeth-grinding to my entertainment choices when I can help it. This isn't "a sense of entitlement" issue. When did the notion of not bending over for masochistic random aggravation in the course of our amusements become suspect? My copy of Skyrim doesn't jump out of my XBox 360 every time someone at Bethesda accidentally nudges a server. The Amber novel I was reading last night didn't burst into flames if I ceased to maintain psychic contact with Roger Zelazny's ghost. You say you've got a game that offers all the technological aggravations of an MMO, all the time, even when I'm not receiving any of the benefits? I say that makes my bookshelves look even more attractive than usual. En Taro Adun, Blizzard. For the first time since 1995, I'm watching one of your trains pull out of the station without me on it. Hey, that girl I like, booksmith extraordinaire Elizabeth Bear, has another delightful thingy freshly available. It, too, will not become unreadable when your internet connection goes down. Bear and I will be at WisCon 36 next weekend! I am not doing any panels or formal events (save for the mass signing thingy on Monday), but I have volunteered to be a dutiful bar-gnome at the CHICKS DIG COMICS launch party, in room 634 from 9 PM Saturday until Jesus-It's-Late-AM Sunday. Also: CHICKS DIG COMICS. Buy one. Read it. Use it to swat people who don't fucking get the picture. Just don't aim for their heads; the skulls are usually too thick for physical attacks to have any effect. At said WisCon, I will be handing over some papers to the awesome Lynne Thomas, and thereby taking my first step into the dark recesses of the SFWA Collection at Northern Illinois State University. It will not be a terribly exciting archive at first, but NIU will be the place to go in the future if you're a scholar wishing to be thoroughly bored by my manuscripts, juvenilia, and detritus. This is the first year in which I'm going to be attending a Worldcon, and also the first year in which I'm going to be voting on the Hugos. Much of that near-future time I'm not spending swearing at my internet connection will be spent dutifully reading the voters' packet material, which just became available. I am thoroughly impressed with just how quickly the more egregiously, obviously comprehension-challenged responses to John Scalzi's "Lowest Difficulty Setting" piece began to resemble rants from the motherfucking TIME CUBE guy. YOU ARE EDUCATED STUPID, JOHN SCALZI! Pro Tip: Time Cube Guy is not an emulational model. If you find your arguments resembling his in tone and coherence, back away from your keyboard. Apply vodka liberally to all unsoused brain nodules. When you awaken, open an account at the nearest clue store. I wish I could tell you a Very Neat Thing. Actually, I have three specific Very Neat Things I am kinda dying to announce. One is good to spill the beans on, one is nearly so, and one is still under publicity embargo. I'd kinda like to be able to spill more than one simultaneously, though, so let's hope I get some directions this coming week. Hints? You want hints? You have me confused with GRRM. I wish my bank account had me confused with GRRM. (16 Comments |Comment on this)
matociquala	12:11p	This is just to say.... ....that there's going to be an Annual Booksale when I get back from WisCon, as there are giant boxes of books all over my house again. You have been forewarned! Also, I will be doing an r/Fantasy (that's Reddit) Ask Me Anything on June 5th. Questions may be posted all day in the appropriate thread, and I will answer them in the evening. Because y'all don't get enough of a chance to listen to me babble... Current Mood: overwhelmed (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, May 17th, 2012
matociquala	3:17p	i'd be drawn and quartered if i could keep you in my bed Look what the Book Elves left on my porch today! You can get yours here. Also, some other good news today, which I will share when I can. Current Mood: happy (15 Comments |Comment on this)
matociquala	1:14p	your brain works a lot faster than mine. Anything else I had to say about the Criminal Minds season finale is subsumed in ZOMG Reid knitted it himself! He makes a pretty good Four. Also, I'm glad they did the Emily thing the way they did the Emily thing; it's good to see Will but he should have known better; I'm pretty sure that UNSUB plan fails on usual the Evil Mastermind overclever subroutine of relying on a coincidence they could not have known about in advance; I bet that's Kevin's cousin; Penelope needs a Stern Talking To of the variety she just gave Morgan a few weeks back; I'm still the only person in this fandom who likes Strauss, but dammit I still like Strauss; and FASTER JJ KILL KILL! Discussion in comments of parallels between JJ in Hit/Run and Hotch in 100 is open for business. Current Mood: mostly quite pleased, really (29 Comments |Comment on this)
matociquala	12:20p	don't you wish there were another picture of che guevara? The following contains discussion of fitness, health, and weight issues. If that is triggery for you, please page down now! Ob. Disclaimer: I absolutely support anyone's right to live in their body as they choose, at any size they find comfortable. This is entirely about me, and my efforts to reclaim my health and strength after half a decade of abusing and neglecting my poor body. Well, I'm wearing a pair of jeans that, based on the brand and cut, must date back to 1987 or so. They're Chic, size 14 tall, and in high school they would have been baggy on me. Now, they fit loosely except for the waist, which is a bit snug--but then, that happened when I was sixteen, too, though the jeans were size 11 then. This is because eighties jeans were cut to fit absolutely nobody except a young Brooke Shields. They do, however, still make my ass look fantastic, a characteristic generally not shared by modern lower-rise jeans, which make nobody's ass look good. Not mine, not yours. Possibly Jessica Simpson's. But they do let one bend at the middle without pinching one's ribcage on the waistband, which I suppose is a win. I guess that means I am officially back in my high school clothes, generously speaking. As I also have a black bat-winged sheath dress from Chico's that I loved in high school, and have been hanging on to for sentimental reasons. I might dust it off for an eighties party later this year. If only I had some slouchy elf boots. I suspect I will save the jeans for eighties nights at goth clubs. I think I still have one pair of slouchy socks hoarded away somewhere... ;-) This is all prelude to saying that I'm hovering somewhere around 187, and have been for about a month now with the usual ups and downs--but I'm obviously building muscle, because I seem to be shrinking. At one point a month or so ago I noticed I had obliques, there under the slack middle-aged tummy. This week, I noticed the top set of ab muscles. Also, my thighs are no longer getting in my way during most of yoga--that stopped after scott_lynch and I walked somewhere around 40 miles in three days of NYC. I can do Hero's Pose and Lightning Pose without cheating now, and my body doesn't actually interfere with my ability to do a lunge anymore. It's still getting in the way of twists, and my biceps interfere with Eagle Pose, but that's not new. I'm a solid girl. I can also wear most of my beloved old corp-goth work clothes again, justifying my hoarding tendencies. Two suits are a bit tight, but they were always on the skinny end of the rack. I had to move the buttons back on a green suit I love, that I had expanded a bit when I was gaining weight. It's a size 12. I am facing the surprising possibility of shrinking out of my wardrobe again. In any case, look for a much better-dressed Bear at conventions this summer, since I love these clothes and don't have a dayjob to wear them to anymore. Curiously, I'm about 17 pounds heavier than the last time I fit in these clothes, which tells us about the power of rock-climbing. Muscle is heavy! My current weight goal is somewhere in the neighborhood of 160 pounds. Which should make the same size, roughly, as when I was in high school and weighed 150-ish. I was on track and field then, and at my most muscular before now, but I'm pretty sure my upper body now dwarfs what I had then. (Shoulders! They're awesome!) Also, um. Boobs. Some cup sizes have come to roost since then. Ahem. So I'm less than thirty pounds from my goal, which is very pleasant. My body is behaving as it should; everything physical is so much easier than it was in 2004, when I couldn't walk a half-mile without agonizing pain (now I can run five 12-minute miles back to back); and I'm enjoying the reduction in back and joint pain and the ability to sleep comfortably on my side or back again without feeling like my own belly is crushing me. I seem to be part of a coterie of SFF writers and fans on the "get healthy the old-fashioned way; move more and eat less crap" bandwagon, which pleases me. (personally, I have been following the efforts of Scalzi, Doctorow, Lynch, Sykes, Downum, Silverstein, Connolly, Buckell, and I'm sure a few others whose names are eluding me because it's time for lunch.) It pleases me because I'd like to see a lot of these people around for a damned long time. I'm also noticing changes in appetite, which tell me my body is adapting to its new lower caloric demands. Two whole pieces of fruit is too much to eat with lunch now; I am contented with half of each (plus some protein and vegetables and brown carbs, of course). (I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, about ten servings most days; I've finally figured out how to reach my RDA minimum of potassium, and it goes like this: a cup of fortified cereal in the morning (Special K protein plus, since I can't find Total Protein around here anymore), half an orange, a small banana, eight ounces of green coconut water, and half a sweet potato. Some strawberries or mango don't hurt either, or some beans.)) For those who are curious about how I did it (my doctor was, and she laughed out loud when I said, "Counting calories, restricting sweets and saturated fat, and getting off my ass!" She then replied, "So doing all the boring shit we tell people to do, huh?"), here's my plan, fondly called The Discipline: It's a refined version of the Hacker Diet, which relies on good old thermodynamics to make things happen. I'm keeping my caloric intake around 1700-1900 calories a day, exercising for about an hour a day on average, drinking lots of water and not too much caffeine, avoiding refined carbs (mostly: I get 100-200 calories of "treat" a day, which could be a glass of wine or a beer, or a brownie, or... PRO TIP: Guinness is lower in calories than most "lite" beers, and tastes a fuckload better. Now you know.), eating roughly twice as many vegetables as the FDA suggests, and trying to keep my protein intake around 20% and my fat intake around 25%--and also trying to keep my protein intake above 100g a day without too much reliance on red meat, or meat at all. (I do use protein supplements--whey and soy, mostly.) I eat a lot of high-protein dairy (skyr!) and I try to limit myself to 100-200 calories a day from refined sugar, which is roughly 20-40 grams. Or, well, half a can of non-diet Coke. Managing sodium intake is a killer. But I'm working on it. Sleeping eight hours a night also pisses me off, but it seems to be necessary. I got six last night, and noticed the difference on my run this morning--I kept having to walk up hills I normally cruise up in second or third gear. I also exercise six days a week--usually two days of climbing (with a little yoga); three days of running; one day of yoga. I also try to get in some vigorous outdoor time when possible--kayaking, hiking, walking the dog. Walking to the store. Picking up my jump rope for five minutes on an otherwise sedentary day. As I said, one of the most successful weeks of the Discipline recently was when Scott and I were on Manhattan, eating every goddamned thing in sight. But we also made a point of walking two-thirds the length of the island at least once (Riverside to Chinatown, with side trips), and we walked as much as time permitted, otherwise. I know it sounds like my fitness routine is crushing, and seven or eight years ago, it would have crushed me. (Hell, I had the pleasant experience recently of putting in a Rodney Yee video that, in 2006, I could do maybe fifteen minutes of, and having the full hour workout be only just pleasantly challenging.) But remember, when I started out, I weighed 285-290 pounds and could not walk a half mile. One good habit builds on another, it turns out--and I find myself drinking more green and herbal tea because black tea doesn't taste good after the first mug, and I find myself not hungry for seconds unless the food is exceptionally good, and even then not always. There's not actually a lot of privation; I just want more of what's healthy for me. It's okay if I have a measured ounce of cheese on my beans and rice, instead of as much as I can fit in the bowl. It still tastes just as good! Better, since it's as easy to afford small quantities of really delicious food as it is large quantities of sort of icky food. And far more satisfying. Who knew? Which is so different from all my old pathological ways of dealing with food and drink that it's a little croggling. Most of this, of course, is just basic health maintenance stuff, and not too hard once you get the hang of it. And it's not like I don't give myself days off: I will in fact have two or three drinks on a night out, for example. I'm fully planning on onion rings after archery tonight when I get dinner with the Thursday Night Shooters. Just... not too damned often. And budget for it. It's not the extremes that set one's level of health; it's the baseline. Current Mood: relaxed (67 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
matociquala	6:14p	half angel. half eagle. one eye on the world. The first volume of Shadow Unit is now available as a proper paper book with a gorgeous Kyle Cassidy cover. It will be available through Amazon within a week, and will slowly filter its way through the rest of the online distribution system. This volume contains the first half of Season 1. Volume 2 should be available in about a month, with other volumes to follow. And of course, Shadow Unit in its entirety is available for free online, and as a modestly priced ebook through the usual sources. The story began in 2007, and will end in 2013. It's not too late to discover one of the coolest collaborative serials in the genre internets! Current Mood: chipper (7 Comments |Comment on this)
skzbrust	2:29a	Scalzi’s Latest: But I didn’t get MY say! John “Breathtakingly Brilliant” Scalzi has made another breathtakingly brilliant post.  At 800 comments and late at night, he finally said “Enough,” especially because everyone was repeating himself (and anyone who didn’t notice the non-sex-specific “he” in that sentence might have problems with this conversation).  Point is, I had something to say about it, and, after reading all 800 comments, no one said it.  So I will say it here. First, please read his post. Okay, when I say it is ‘breathtakingly brilliant,” I mean it, because it has beautifully redefined things for me.  It was a classic case of, “You’re bothered by this metaphor, so let me give you a new metaphor without the emotional baggage, so that, just maybe, we can discuss the actual issue.”  It worked. And, in so doing, it highlighted my problem with the whole, massive bundle.  My problem can be stated thus: All of this effort put into either a) How do we make the game more fair, or b) At least making us aware of how unfair the rules are,  makes it that much harder to focus on what is, to me, most important: THE FUCKING GAME SUCKS. I don’t want to play it, I don’t want to be forced to play it, I don’t want strangers to have no choice but to play it; I don’t like smug assholes “dropping out” to live in the woods and then claiming they aren’t playing it. The game needs to go.  It needs to be replaced by a game that doesn’t have a wealth stat, or an education stat, because those things are just always maxed for everyone.  It needs to be replaced by a game in which the stats are different talents, and the only thing to put points in are interests and passions. John calls his game real life, and he’s right, it is.  But I passionately, deeply believe it isn’t the only choice for what real life can be.  Most people will believe my desire here is unrealistic, and dismiss it; but we must not forget that many of these people believe (or believed) that voting for Obama made a difference, so exactly who is unrealistic is open for debate.  In terms of material wealth and capacity for wealth production, there is, at present, enough to create the game I want, or at least get pretty close.   In order to concentrate on changing the rules for stat setting, you must believe the game is always going to be there, more or less the same. I will never accept that.     Originally published at Words Words Words. Please leave any comments there.