Sunday, July 17, 2005

10:46 PM - vampires and Pottermania

a pain in the neck

Bizarrely, my neck started hurting on Friday again. It did the same thing in June and the trouble is, when it hurts, it really, really hurts. Spine/nerve pain is really no joke, and I have a lot more sympathy for people who live with that on a chronic basis.

I spent most of the day Saturday lounging around, rubbing my neck with Tiger Balm and hoping to feel better. Eventually I took some Advil and felt well enough to go outside for a bit... I decided I needed some extra pampering so I went to the store and bought some books (including the new Harry Potter) and then got some of my favorite foods at the grocery, including the elusive Haagen-Dazs Mocha Almond Fudge.... nummy. I got home at about nine, and read the book almost nonstop until about sunrise. I didn't think it would take me that long to read, but I started to notice a blue light in my windows that I thought was neon, and then I realized I had successfully read until morning.

No spoilers here, although I will say that thanks to the internet I was ready to predict (and emotionally fortify myself for!) most of the spoilable events before they happened in the book. I had been reading some of the pre-release fan speculations. Two main comments:

1) I was encouraged by how much anti-war sentiment J.K. instilled into the book in several places. It wasn't terribly subtle, but I'm glad she was bold enough to behave like an artist and give some commentary on real-world current events. I think we need more people who are willing to exercise free speech and express their views, and I am glad that J.K. did so for youth. I also think it's also a sign of how starved we are for creativity and color worldwide that so many copies of this book have sold in the past 48 hours.

2) I really had been under the impression that Tonks was a lesbian. So much for my own personal wishful thinking for positive portrayals of queer folk in mainstream media.... Instead the best same-sex couple we get in this book are Eldred Worple and his vampire friend (Sanguini?!?!? As if any self-respecting gay vampire would name themselves that!) at the Christmas party.

I realized I'm something of a one-note pony in terms of what I write about. In any case, I slept on and off throughout the day and now it's almost 11pm and I'm waking up instead of winding down. My neck is feeling much better, thanks to my special orthopedic pillow. Rawr. At least I've been having interesting dreams, and I usually dream most vividly when I am not sleep deprived. Yay!

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

11:54 PM - after the "training run"

after running 26.2 miles and stress fracturing my foot

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

2:20 PM - it's like a parade

compatibility issues in the spotlight

There isn't much to post here, really. I was thinking about re-making my website in CSS, but the cross-browser compatibility problems are so annoying that I will need to learn more to do that. Also, I was considering that this might be a good opportunity to re-design the site, rather than simply re-make the same structures as I had in HTML. So if there's something you love or hate or would like to see, this might be the time to speak up.

I'm also hoping to do a couple of photo shoots for the costumes that are missing photos or the ones that I don't like their photos. So yay.

I had two more fantastic birthday activities recently... a brunch with AJ at The Greens and a dinner with Cyclona and CC at Café Gratitude. Both were really really nice. I wish that it could be my birthday all year, if it means I get to spend such quality time with good people.

The weather is hot, and nothing makes me feel ennui quite as acutely as paralyzingly hot weather. Oh look, I am dripping. :-P Along with the hot weather has come an invasion of ants, which is really amusing because there's not much for them to nibble on, so they just seem to wander around in elusive clumps, at least now that I've gotten them away from my garbage. They were pretty much immune to the first kind of poison I tried, although it may have thinned their numbers. Last night I got some no-nonsense arsenic so they can have the honor of going out just like Napoleon. In the meantime, I'm keeping all of my foodstuffs inside the fridge. I have probably spent way too much time watching ants to try to understand their psychology, because I'm starting to understand their ways. *shudder*