Escapist Wonderland

I went to see the Harry Potter movie last night, and in contrast to a loud chorus of disgruntlement from the rest of the peanut gallery, I was not at all disappointed. It hit right in the center of my candy-loving kidspot. Of course, I haven't read any of the books yet. I'm tempted, now, because the "middle-school aged misfit is granted wonderous new powers" theme encompassed so many of my happy hours in middle school, along with the "middle-school aged misfit finds a magical critter for a friend" and "middle-school aged misfit goes to Mars" and other similar items... I swear I had friends when I was 13, and plenty of them even though we were nowhere near the "popular" crowd, but looking back at my old bookshelf you'd never believe it.

I've been in the mood for escapism lately, and dangerously so - my delvings into the Lord of the Rings have started to compete with daily necessities like cooking supper, and I've been waking up each morning fiercely wishing that I could rejoin my dreams, even though I'm not really tired at all. But I can't for the life of me imagine what I might be trying to escape - the fearsome spectre of upcoming julefrokosts? Salt licorice? Final climate modelling projects are a reasonable prospect, as are the piles of nagging administrative emails I've been postponing since September out of sheer stubbornness, but when I put on my sanity cap those things aren't really any worse than doing the laundry, which has also been making me quiver in fear. So I guess I'll pawn it off on the four o'clock sunsets and maybe a mild vitamin deficiency.

Weird.
yami · 16:43 · 30 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Movies

delicious and nutritious

From the Quiet Activist department: are you irritated at the Salvation Army's decision to revoke domestic partnership benefits in the Western sector? Sick and tired of faith-based charities whose faith condemns important parts of your life? Then say so with these delightful little queer dollars, which can be easily stuffed into the bell-ringer's pot along with your real-money donation. No hassle, no fuss. Frankly, I try not to micromanage any company's health care policy without a good deal more information than I've got, and I generally prefer to spend my activist time and money working towards a proper set of marriage laws so that economic decisions aren't horribly mucked up with queer rights issues, but the Harvey Milk three-dollar bill is just too cute to resist.
yami · 15:03 · 30 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Gay Rights

I’ll take your course schedule and…

... *!#%/!"!#%!!!!!! ?��!#&#"""�%#%!! +@{[]#��$�@!

I have much love for the Caltech Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. Really. No, really, I do, they've given me lots of free food in the past and will probably be giving me lots of free food in the future, so I'm not going to bite the hand that feeds me. But they just took away all my classes. They merged Inverse Methods with another, much nastier data analysis course, made it two terms long and added prerequesites that I won't have until next year. They completely obliterated Elementary Seismology. They made two terms of continuum mechanics a prerequisite for Physics of the Earth's Interior - this was my advisor's fault, he'll be getting an earful when I get back. In fact, they completely obliterated almost all of the useful undergraduate geophysics courses. I have to fulfill an "option electives" requirement, which last year meant I should pick four courses from a list of seven. This year, I get to pick four courses from a list of five (why is Crustal Geophysics no longer considered worthy?), and there's no way in hell I'm putting myself through two extra terms of continuum mechanics, I might be nuts but I'm not fuckin' suicidal here, there's still that horrible horrible physics course to think of.

I can still graduate on time, I suppose, but next fall is going to be hell-on-wheels. Why didn't they warn me about this before I signed up to leave the country?

Gah.

Okay. Thanks. I'll try and be less ranty next time.
yami · 14:52 · 28 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: I Hate Everything

Unto the Breach!

New font. How's it working?

Today has been a day for reciting Shakespeare, loudly and with grand gesticulation, and for poking fun at Robert Frost by reading choice excerpts in a silly voice. I've always hated Robert Frost. Ice is nice, indeed, bah humbug.

It's also been a day for Dylan Thomas - it's quite easy to rage, rage against the dying of the light when the sun sets at 4:30 and it's been cloudcast all day anyway. Phoo. Gah. This whole "darkness" thing is much easier to take when I'm wrapped up in bed with a book and a bedside table covered in varied and delicious treats.

And, last but not least, I'm sure you all want to see oxygen isotope data from the middle of a glacier in Greenland. I was certainly happy to see it, at any rate. It's right here.
yami · 17:01 · 26 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Literature, Diary

I know America

Furthermore we know America, we're at home; I can go anywhere in America and get what I want because it's the same in every corner, I know the people, I know what they do. We give and take and go in the incredibly complicated sweetness zigzagging every side.
Yeah, I went down to the bookstore today and bought a smooth-skinned paperback copy of On the Road, to quench my language-whining. And whad'ya know if it hasn't made me just a little bit homesick. I've been thinking and saying and swearing up and down that I don't really miss any meaningful tangible things from home, just people and that inevitable quality of familiarity that comes when you grow up in a place, but I was wrong. I do miss things about the States, and they're popping out of this book, all tangled up with youth and wanderlust and smothered in exuberance. They're things without names - can you name them?
yami · 23:14 · 24 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Literature

oh no, not the hypothalamus!

So I've reworked some of my old CGI toys, and you'll find them on the page for real content. I'm particularly pleased with the Name Confluxer.

It also occurs to me that over the course of my life, I have generally not been thankful enough for grandparents. I still have all four of mine, you see, and until recently they have all been in exceptionally good health. Hell, I have memories of three of my great-grandparents, one of whom is still kicking around in her late 90s and the other two of whom lived for over a century. My version of Grandma's Scary Geriatric Smell, then, is located a generation further back, and I've been extremely lucky to know all of my grandparents as vibrant individuals untainted by the stench of rosewater. But, old age eventually hits us all, and so one of my grandfathers is dealing with Parkinson's while the other just had a couple tumors chopped out of his lung. He is in his own words a "tough old farmer" and is recovering quickly; I just hope the surgeons didn't miss anything.

I'm still terrified by the slow transformation of people I love into frail and sickly versions of themselves. Maybe if I lived closer to home I wouldn't notice, but each time I see my other grandfather it's like his fraying dopamine system has killed off a few more of the grandpas I remember, and when my memories run out then he'll be gone, but no matter how hard I try I can't remember fast enough to save him.
yami · 13:32 · 24 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Personal, Announcements

synchronizing

Yes. My internal calendar has finally come in line with the Danish holiday system. Now it is acceptable to see Christmas decorations everywhere, and make greedy little lists of things I want to own, and drink egg nog or gløgg or cinnamon schnapps - but not Gammel Dansk, blech.

And speaking of greedy little lists, I made one. Not that I expect any of you to care, unless you're my Secret Santa. I'm such a sucker for gimmicks, and this is such a fun gimmick.

Rantlet: I thought it would be a good idea to fill my wish list with feminist theory, because I haven't been getting enough of that lately and it's good stuff. So I saw the link to the "women's fiction" section and clicked on it... yes, I should have known better, but god damnit what's wrong with just calling 'em romance novels? Sure, they may be targeted at hormone-sopped women of all ages, but I heartily resent the implication that such a literary ghetto is *exclusively associated* with women.

A train of thought that's doomed to derail: sci-fi and romance are both off in the far backwaters of literary hoohah. Sci-fi has been traditionally associated with lonely young men, whearas romance is associated with lonely older women. How has this gender association shaped the evolution of the two genres, particularly with respect to their reputation in the mainstream?
yami · 18:58 · 23 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Literature, Diary

*burp*

It seems that I've survived my annual glancing blow from the Martha Stewart transmogrifying ray, with only a small stack of crusty mouldering soaking dishes to show for it. And leftovers, of course - there was a brief window early this afternoon where my shelf in the refrigerator had cleared so much that I was no longer afraid to look at it, but that window is gone now, the precariously perched bags of cranberries replaced by precariously perched tupperwares full of turkey. At least I can open my cupboard without fear of falling yams. As the saying goes, a good time was had by all.

And, even though it's technically no longer Thanksgiving in this time zone, here's a list of very trivial items for which I am thankful: tupperware, saran wrap, flat toasters, vertical toasters that make the bread pop up when it's done, toasters that go *bing* when it's done, toasters that don't go *bing* when it's done so that you can go *bing* all for yourself whenever you want, spoons.

Good Night.
yami · 23:54 · 22 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Whimsy, Diary

joining my drunk…

... will be a few Danish commiserators. You see, last year when it became clear that Bush was ultimately going to slip into the White House, I vowed to spend these four years totally piss drunk. Crap political news is much easier to handle that way, I think, and now that the paranoid loonies are effectively part of Denmark's new governing coalition, there's going to be an extra daily dose of crap political news coming from Christiansborg. I found myself dispensing sage advice throughout the day: the first few months are the worst, then you learn to take comfort in satire.

Now, I'm completely baffled and a little bit frightened by all the anti-immigration rhetoric leading up to this election. I mean, by reasonable Angelino standards, there are practically no immigrants here at all, so what's all the fuss about? Copenhagen could use some more ethnic food. Plus I think Pia Kjærsgaard looks like Cruella de Ville. But after putting up with countless snide remarks about the cowboy in Washington, I have to say, I'm feeling a touch smug here. At least now I'm not the only one wandering around feeling responsible for alien viewpoints.

The BBC also has a few things to say on the matter.
yami · 23:35 · 21 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Global Politics

I went to the butcher

I went to the butcher today to pick up my turkey, and when he pointed at the inside of the turkey and asked a question of the form "skal jeg udtage...[gibberish]" I assumed he was asking if I wanted the giblets removed. Feeling agreeable, I said yes, and then he took my poor innocent turkey off into the back room. When he came back, the turkey was in two plastic bags, and limp - he had taken out the entire sternum and rib cage assemblage. So tomorrow morning I will have an impromptu laboratory session in anatomy, as I sort out all the bits that go into the gravy from all the bits that go into the oven, and also one in topology, as I try and stuff the rib cage back inside the turkey. It'll be good fun, and in the worst case scenario I'll serve a limp turkey that's easier to carve, and all the stuffing will be on the side.

The only thing is, I feel so sad for that poor limp carcass, with its legs and wings all floppy and its middle collapsing. Cooking a Thanksgiving turkey is a bit like caring for a baby, what with the basting every half hour, and this year I feel like my baby has been dosed with thalidomide. I think I'll be sticking to frozen-solid Butterballs from now on.
yami · 15:02 · 21 Nov 2020 · #
Filed under: Food