Today, ybunny and I are supposed to be relaxing. We did have a lie-in of sorts...though, we didn't go to bed last night until 2am, so a 10am lie-in isn't very impressive. We also took out the recycling (a much bigger deal than it sounds), so we're not completely relaxed.

Now, we're sitting on the couch, contemplating the mess over in Matt's room as well as the other little things that must get done today. So much for a day of relaxation.

While I'm vegging out for my allotted 15 minutes, I'll answer this meme. EDIT:In the middle of this, we had to go out for an emergency sixpence. *sigh*

firinel asked me about some of my interests.

Here's the story behind the ones she picked.

aereogramme
A band. Unfortunately, they just broke up. :(
Their sound was sad, but in a contemplative way. Their song, 'A Simple Process of Elimination' was my favorite.

church of paul
Started as a joke with peagles, who has since deleted his LJ. He was on Rep as well. Honestly, I can't remember the very beginning of it, but I know that redthought, shineyquarter, and I got a lot of laughs out of it.
There's still a website for it. :)

controlled library squee
Because you can't be loud and obnoxious with squee in libraries. :)
I really love libraries, the potential in the almost overwhelms me.
One of the saddest travel moments for me was not being able to do more than look at the Trinity College library in Dublin. golfbisquit and redthought had to pull me away.

everyone is 18
A reaction to LJ's nannyism. I see where they're coming from on some of it, but it was handled incredibly badly.

exacting mise en place
A reaction to my youthful cooking that usually required a stop in the middle to go buy eggs, flour, beans, cheese, vinegar, sugar, or anything else that a clever person would have checked to see that they had before starting on a recipe.
Nowadays, I not only check the recipe, but pre-measure all the ingredients and have bowls/utensils/baking pans/saucepans ready to go before I start. Makes cooking a happier experience for me.

failing toward success
I've found that learning to fail graciously and gracefully is the key to my success. It's similar to being able to admit ignorance on a subject in order to truly learn about it.

illicit still
Where ybunny and I got engaged. :)
Unfortunately, they no longer serve their brilliant vegetarian breakfast.

imaginatory reality
So much better than real life at times, no?
I tend to day dream a different version of events, as they're happening, if I'm bored.

metonymy
Literally, in Greek, 'change of name'. It's the idea of using a word, usually a simplification, to replace an idea or representative thing/person.
'The pen is mightier than the sword' is an example. 'Pen' refers collectively to media/authors and 'sword' to military/any sort of physical force.
My favorite writers and poets use this quite a bit.

quodlibets
From Latin, 'as you like', it's the idea of having an argument for its own sake, or just to practice making a logical argument. In this case, a debate that has no anticipated outcome from either side.

sticky strawberry surprise
A reference to the messes ybunny and I have made making smoothies in the flat. In particular, an afternoon when ybunny yanked the jug part of the blender up after making a yogurt, honey, and strawberry smoothie and the bottom of the jug didn't come along. Voilá, sticky strawberry surprise.

susurrousness under the covers
I love being in bed. I love being in bed with someone more. Not just ybunny, I love being in bed with my sister and such also. The conversations you have, half whispered, in bed are the best. Susurrous is one of those brilliant word that sounds like what it is describing.

χξς
The number 666 in Greek.
There's a lot of blah-de-blah in evangelical circles about the number 666. I reject pretty much all of the numeromancy that goes on with all that. (Funny that people who are so against witchcraft are happy enough to fiddle about with Bible codes and the aforementioned numeromancy.)
I like the Eastern Orthodox idea of this that Christ (the χ) is separated from man (the ς, for six, symbolizing man, created on the 6th day) by the serpent (the ξ).
It's a bit nebulous in authenticity, but I like the idea.

Right. Back to cleaning.

If anyone wants to continue this meme, tell me about your 1st, 4th, 13th, 27th, 42nd, 100th, and 123rd interest. :)

Round Eleventy-million of the 5 question meme.
These via fireyirishangel


1. Where do you see yourself in 15 years?
If you'd said 5, I might know. 15 is very much 'might/could' sort of situation...or 'hope'.
I think that we'll still be living in the UK. We may have had a sojourn back to the US (I'd like to have an actual job eventually) but I'd be sad to not call Aberdeen home in the end.
We might have kids, it's very 50/50 at this point.
I'm going to hope that we'll have convinced some of my family to move here by then.

2. What are you most looking forward to in regards to your quickly-approaching wedding and marriage?
To the planning and worrying being over. :)
I'm not worried about the day so much...it's more along the lines of 'what if one of the flights people are on from the US is delayed?'
As far as marriage, I'm looking forward to more of the same. ybunny couldn't be a better match for me if he tried and I'm grateful everyday for him. < /smoopiness >

3. If you could witness one day in history, what day would you choose? Why?
Tough, tough choice. I think I'd choose the day that Moses first went in to see Pharaoh.
It would make a good section for my thesis. Heh.
Seriously though, I would like to have some personal knowledge of Moses. Writing about someone whose real self is largely lost to history really piques my curiosity.

4. Aside from being with your beloved, what is the best thing about living in Scotland?
Oh, so many things.
I love the weather. I'm so fair skinned and hot natured that an area with rain just about everyday and lots of overcast skies make me very happy.
The history is ubiquitous. I love that I can discover some new wynd (alley/side street) occasionally. I've read just about every book on Aberdeen history I can get. It's facinating for me to realize that I'm walking in the same places that people have been living and working for 1500 years, if not more.
I enjoy getting to know people from Aberdeen. Some of the things that are endemic to Scotland culture make me understand my grandmother better. (She's not Scottish, but was raised that way.)
On a practical note, I enjoy being without a car. Such a money saver. Except when the holiday schedule throws off my day.
There's so much beauty here that it takes my breath away. It's almost effortless as well. This city sprouts flowers like other cities sprout weeds. It's amazing.

5. You get a chance for an all-expenses paid honeymoon and have no real-life concerns (school, work). Where do you go?
Probably Thailand and India. We both want to see those places, but we know that we're hopelessly unfamiliar with the logistics of visiting either. We'd either have to pay to go on a tour (which I hate!) or pay lots to stay in places suited to clueless Westerners.
While I can muddle my way through with German, French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Greek, and Russian, I have no ability to speak/read Thai or any of the Indian languages. I feel that traveling without being able to understand is frustrating even before any other complications come into the picture.
Maybe I'd spend the 'all-expenses' on an intensive language course. :)

I totally forgot, but my journal/blog is 5 years old now.
Actually, it was 5 years old on Tuesday.

Seems a long time ago when the only LiveJournal people I knew were cmpriest and shineyquarter.

I read somewhere that most blogs are abandoned by the 6 month mark. Guess I've made it past that.

I suppose I'll see whether I'm still using this in another 5.

Back home from Cornwall.

As usual, travelogue will follow.

I've tried to read back through what I've missed in the last week, but there's a lot, so point out to me anything you want me to see. Cheers.

Now, it's time for some snuggling with my Caoimhe-kitty.

P.S. - ybunny is back tomorrow morning. Woohoo.

If you haven't yet heard of cleolinda and her community m15m (Movies in 15 minutes), I'm here to make with the linkage.

I must say, her summary of 300 is the funniest thing I've read by Cleo.

NARRATOR!FARAMIR: What are we fighting for?

SOME CORINTHIAN: Scotland?



Go. Read. Shoo.

I'm curious, help me out.

About a week and some ago, I put a ClustrMap on my blog.



Who's ISP is in
-India?
-Australia?
-Japan?
-Russia?
-Finland?
-Sweden?
-the Azores (if that's what that dot is for)?

I think I know where the rest are from.

Curiosity killed the cat and all that, but if you think you are one of those red dots, drop a comment, won't you? :)

I started this blog almost five years ago. It seems like ages ago when I changed from incessant paper journalling to electronic journalling.

Back in 2002, I mostly blathered about school and friends...about minor irritations or excitement with both. Not much has changed, obviously.

I've started thinking that I should have a point to my blog, a raison d'être, a constant theme.

That ain't gonna happen, at least not a total move to one subject alone. It's a nice thought, but ultimately, the only thing that I do with any regularity is study, attend church, and eat. Everything else is just situational.

1. Study: well, I could blog about this, but I'm no expert (yet) in my field, so it would be a bit like watching paint dry.
Yesterday I read a book. Today I read another book. Tomorrow I will read another book and try to make all three seem connected.
Blah.

2. Religion: I have at times posted on religion, and probably will do again. I keep all of this filtered, because I'm no evangelical...so I don't feel the need to subject my beliefs to the world at large. In real life, possibly...online, no. People can be irrationally nasty when discussing politics, religion, or nationality in virtual interaction. No, thank you.

3. Food: I cook. I've been told I do it pretty well. I enjoy eating out as well. I'm excited about the history and future of gastronomy.

So, maybe I'll make an effort to post about food more often. I think I'll start doing a food themed post every Friday.

The first few will likely be re-posts of restaurant reviews that I put up on my .Mac account. After that? We'll see.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

...and yes, it's all fecked up.

So. The laptop fell. This will make the third time I've dropped my laptop. This time, it was a cat aided drop. Also, this time the laptop was open. This apparently makes a difference. At the moment, Greenfish will start up but once it gets past the initial apple logo/spinning wheel it doesn't do anything else.

Because of this, I won't be online except to check email on a very infrequent basis. If you are waiting on response from me for anything, you may need to email again if you sent anything days ago, I know that some emails got downloaded to the laptop that I didn't get to see before the crash.

For the next month, in case it takes that long to fix the lappy, I will be preparing to start my PhD. Even typing that makes me just slightly panicky. But, at least the Fiance is home for at least a while.

See ya.

[EDIT] The lappy is working again. I'm having random problems, I believe it's the logic board again. Luckily, I've six more months of AppleCare. Fix it, biatches!

I'm really starting to feel stress from a lot of things.

I'm taking a break from all things internet until at least Sunday evening.

Upset earlier, name calling.

Talked to firinel, found my zen, feel better.

On to the Moscow circus. :)

I only operate one opt-in filter for LJ. I'm generally anti-filter.

However, there is one area in which I find that people have a hard time being nice: religion.

I occasionally post about spirituality, my church, religion, beliefs and theology. However, I will not entertain any bad behaviour. That's why it is an opt-in filter.

If you want to be added, leave a comment.

If you do, that means you agree to these two things:

1) You will not attack any other users for any comments they make. You may attack me if you feel so obliged. I have a pretty tough skin if you have a valid argument. However, I don't expect that everyone does.
Keep your hands comments to yourself.

2) You understand that this is written from a Christian perspective, but that it is written by someone well versed in theology and actively engaging with the historical-critical method. I believe, but I have not been lobotomized. Just making sure you've got that under your belt.

Alright...filter = comment. :)

I think LJ is not emailing some comments again...

Since I'm half asleep and incapable of sleep or anything else useful, have some icons.

Preview:


( Valentine's Day Icons )

Another another note, anyone have a favorite clean-yet-fancy fonts they'd care to recommend?

I just badly burned my first three fingers on my right hand.

This puts a kink in the revising.

I find that I can't write what I need to write unless I write other things. Go figure.

So, here goes:
Copy to your journal and answer....
1. My username is ____ because ____.
2. My journal is titled ____ because ____.
3. My subtitle is ____ because ____.
4. My friends page is called ____ because ____.
5. My default userpic is ____ because ___.

1. My username is rethought because I needed an alias for myself when I sent a scathing review to the 'underground' paper at university. Before that I'd always used versions of my real name.

2. My journal is titled Thoughts Like Music because I didn't really like my old title (which was 'Think Again'). I wanted something to reflect how varied my thoughts are. Kind of like how many varieties of music there are...

3. My subtitle is 'echo through my mind' because it goes with the title, and because it's true.

4. My friends page is called Friends' Thoughts because I like it better than 'My Thinkers' which is what it used to be to match 'My Thoughts'.

5. My default userpic is because it is mostly orange, non-specific, and not of me.

Right, back to writing.

Well, LiveJournal's attempt at holiday decor makes me agree with Frank the Goat: Bah Humbug!

When and if I publish my future dissertation, I'm going to put this quote in the Preface:

I don't know everything, I don't know how fish work!

I realize that tempers are brittle and feelings run high whenever the current US president is mentioned. This isn't meant to have a political bias either way. I'm beyond explaining my point to either side, as I identify with neither.

The thing is, I'm all for free speech. I am, I really really am. However, it sets off a giggle down in my heart of hearts when people try to prove their point against the current administration by citing...wait for it...MOVIES.*

I wonder if that's universal policy now. I could cite The Last Temptation of Christ in my uni papers. I'm sure this citation plan will take off. ;)

---

*To be fair, it would crack me up no matter which side was doing it. I guess I've just seen so many people calling the 'Red Staters' morons that I have to laugh. We're all morons at one moment or another. Gah.

Here's the icons you wanted, ybunny.

Anyone need some free account paid time?

It's gone. :)

I know that beccaj has already seen this...cause, well, I got it from her journal. But! It's too funny to miss, so I must re-post it.

Letters Unlikely To Be Read