Thanks for taking a moment to read my sticky post on friending.
On the whole, there's no need to friend me if you just want to read my fics, since they are posted unlocked. In fact, most of my locked posts are me ranting about the state of the world (usually from a politics or media slant) or some such.
Generally, I am a ready friender. If you friend me and you have entries in your livejournal or have commented on some of my posts, you can usually expect to be friended back, unless:
* There are no entries in your LJ.
* I do not recall us ever having 'spoken' online (given how selective my memory is, you should probably assume this.)
* Your LJ is written wholly in a language I do not speak (pretty much anything that is not English, or French or Italian (both of which I speak poorly), or German, Spanish, Latin, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Welsh or Irish (all of which I have a smattering of and enough reference books to get the gist.) (Though if your journal is in actual Latin as opposed to Lorem Ipsum, I will probably immediately friend you on principle.)
* Your journal consists of several entries a day concerning My Little Pony, school and whether your hair looks better in plaits, pigtails, or with a fringe pouf. You are probably adorable, but should not be subjected to my occasional flocked rants.
SO, if you've friended me (thanks!) and I've not friended you back, just drop a brief line saying 'Excuse me, oh vague and neglectful one, could you friend me back please?'
I can't guarantee that I will ever have time to be a good lj friend, but I will try and provide you with amusing content and I always try to read my whole flist. Well, the stuff before the cut at any rate.
On the upside, today is a Great Day for Fandom! For it is the birthday of many terrific people!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO
and also to
Finally, HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY
And CAKE FOR ALL!
Pavlovas have a life of three to four days.
Two people should not try to consume an enormous one within this period.
We might actually make it, but ooooooooooooohhhhh ...
And thank you so very much to everyone who wished me the best for yesterday! It was indeed a very lovely birthday, and I was, as a friend suggested, happier than an emo at a Twilight convention.
I know I am going to leave people off this list, and I apologise in advance, but thanks very much to
I was going to say no gifts, or spend money on Haiti if you are a compulsive giftgiver, but LJ was really helpful there, yay!
All in all that was one of the nicest birthdays in years, and full of laughs. Thank you all and everyone else on my flist for making life perpetually interesting and enjoyable!
is one of my very favourite artworks in all the world, and -- not long after hanging out with this one (there are several) in Paris -- I now have a tiny version of my very own sitting on my cabinet. Mr Brammers is worth his weight in gold, really, despite his little moments.
As an older woman, I became a reviewer, writing about contemporary music and books for the most part, but also events, film, theatre and even fashion on a few memorable occasions. It was an interesting enterprise as I tried to separate the ways I looked at artefacts and to judge them on levels beyond personal taste and the intent of the author. Because while both those things matter, they're not the most important things. For example: Jeff Koons has a sculpture called Puppy, which is a 12-metre-high installation of a sculpture of a West Highland terrier clad in flowering plants. Now, Koons describes his own work as having no subtle artistic intent, though he seems happy to be paid well for it. And, being a bit of a wanker, I am inclined to think that Koons is a a post-Pop opportunist who is thrilled Andy Warhol died in 1987, and sniffily disapprove of him on principle. However, neither my taste nor the author's intent are the thing that form my response to Puppy. Because it is actually impossible to have a 12-metre-high terrier blooming in front of you and not smile. It's pure Festival, in the sense of the public taking a moment out of the everyday to commune with something that is anything but everyday. Once we did it with religion, now we sometimes do it with art.
All this is background.
Where I am going with it is that I like criticism. As a performer I liked reading it to push me, and as a reviewer I liked thinking about works beyond the simple 'Oh, yes, that was lovely' or 'La Fura dels Baus are really scary and I am not used to having to run away at the theatre!'** I like reading critiques for themselves, as well as in relation to works I am going to see/read, either before or after. I read works by dead critics.
If you ever want to criticise my work, you are free to do so, and I in fact encourage it. One really brave fandom friend has just challenged a few of us to leave critical comments on all her work at the moment (and if she is fine with probably having a few people come to gawp, I'll edit this paragraph to pop her name in, although anyone not reading her already is mad, I tell you!) I am completely up for the same experiment.
However ...
( Why I'm not going to say 'concrit is a great idea!' )
All of which is a long way of saying: I do get why a lot of my friends don't like concrit and there are dozens of good reasons and a few bad ones not to, but I'm personally fine with it and think you should feel free over here, even if I respond by telling you your point is not actually as valid as you think. For example, you might now like to criticise the rambling of the above paragraphs, and I would have to grant that you make an excellent point.
On a final and unrelated note, GO ANDY MURRAY!!
( The footnotes )
Me: What's wrong with shopping on Thursday?
Him: Well, you'll want something on Thursday morning, won't you? And then you'd want to do presents rather than have me go late-night shopping.
Me (testily): For my birthday that falls on Friday?
Him: Ah. Friday. Not Thursday, then.
Me: How long have we been together?
Him. Thirteen years. Fourteen? Is it fifteen? You do a really good outraged face, you know!
NB: You lot are all quite allowed to forget my birthday, because god knows I am shocking at keeping up to date with my flist's (and at my age, it does not hurt people to forget a few years have passed), but he and I have been together since 1995! Grrrrr!
On a related note,
It's a strange public holiday, because the European attitudes to it fall somewhere between 'Fucking Godzone innit? Pass the beer!' and 'Er, actually, we pretty much failed to live up to international law when we took the country ...'* while the Indigenous attitudes are along the lines of 'Geez, you wouldn't think Reconciliation would be that hard for a country that can take monumental drought in its stride.'
As a result, the day itself sees everything from infltable-thong-swimming records to Invasion Day protests. As a ring-in, I like to do a demi-Australian Day, so I went to the pub, and had some lamb, but drank no beer and had neither lamington nor pavlova. Having said that, I am now craving pavlova ...
On a totally unrelated and profoundly shallow note, I would wear each and every garment in this Christian Dior collection and am now thoroughly regretting not buying a new dressage hat while in London. Time to pull out the silks and sewing machine ...
* Interestingly, Governor Phillip, who came out with the First Fleet, was actually very good about the rights of the indigenous population, as were a number of his successors. John Macarthur, leading businessman of the colony, on the other hand, was a complete bastard.
ANYWAY, on to our winners! Out in front was the lovely and self-sacrificing
The random prize was won by
If anyone above has already spent all their donation money, that's fine, just let me know and we will go to the next on the list (I have left the slips in the hat should it come to that!)
Otherwise, winners, get in touch with receipt numbers, and Emerald, you have first pick! Hurrah! Thank you very very much to everyone who bid, you are all complete champions!
* There are MANY more jokes than I had recalled, including slapstick. And the character surprises, such as McMurdo revealing Holmes's boxing prowess, are handled more deftly than I had recalled.
* Watson is by far the gayer of the two. In A Study in Scarlet, he is rescued in Afghanistan through 'the courage and devotion shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a packhorse and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines.' while in The Man With the Twisted Lip, he can identify a gown of mousseline-de-soie. Let us not speak of his obsession with Holmes.
* Conan Doyle is a cheerful rebooter. Not only does Watson's Afghanistan wound migrate from his shoulder to his leg, but, in A Study in Scarlet, he describes Holmes as completely ignorant of literature and feeble at politics, and says: 'On these occasions I have noticed such a dreamy, vacant expression in his eyes that I might have suspected him of being addicted to the use of some narcotic, had not the temperance and cleanliness of his whole life forbidden such a notion.' The very next story, The Sign of Four, opens with Holmes injecting cocaine, and it is implied morphine is also used when he feels like it. A few pages later, the great detective quotes Goethe (not for the only time), and in The Red-Headed League, he quotes Flaubert writing to George Sand. He is also able to recognise the King of Bohemia on first sight, and can tell you how sundry political intrigues inter-relate, though he won't, in A Scandal in Bohemia.
* Conan Doyle loves the narrative possibilities presented by the Colonies, or, just as likely, is keenly aware of the publishing markets available in each. They receive intriguing representation, though. The Subcontinent is a place of Deep Mysteries, from whence come both deeply honourable men and scoundrels of the darkest nature. Sikhs can be trusted to abide by their word, but the white man can go very bad in the hot climates. America is far, far worse, though. While the good men and women of the United States are thoroughly decent, they are surrounded by the blackest of criminal conspiracies, all motivated by money, be they religious in nature (the Mormons in A Study in Scarlet), or from a secret society (the KKK in The Five Orange Pips -- and I recall at least one other where there is a criminal gang arrayed against A Noble Hero, but have not re-read it yet). Australians are either plucky and resourceful, or else dreadful casual criminals, and New Zealanders have invariably made their fortune. I wonder at his peer group, and would love to know if he had types for some of these.
* Both Conan Doyle and Holmes are less sexist than I recall. Women are written as being more reliable, less emotional and more sensible than men on the whole. While Holmes makes a few patronising decisions, such as not revealing to a woman that her missing 'fiance' is in fact her devious stepfather, he is far more patronising to members of the police force, and for less kind reasons. On the whole, women -- and not just Irene Adler (BTW, those of you who have read A Scandal in Bohemia, do you think 'the late' means no longer Adler, or that she has died by the time the story is written?) -- come out well in the Holmes stories so far.
I am now wishing I had made notes as I read through, because more things occurred to me at the time, only to be forgotten. Still, I am less than a sixth of my way through all the stories, so I am sure I shall blather on more at a later point. If you've not had the joy, I thoroughly recommend him.
In happier news, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to
Mid 30s today, 40-something predicted for tomorrow. Complain, complain, complain!
Reading Sherlock Holmes again, giggling at the wandering Watson wound and Holmes who has no knowledge of literature in the first book, and is quoting Goethe in the second. Joy!
Tomorrow you will find me mostly naked, sitting on a bag of ice, reading Conan Doyle. Probably not the best day to visit.
The coffee bar is a bit further progressed, and they have recently unveiled the new fit-out. It will be called The Kick Inside. Mr Brammers and I are now dreaming of a Kate Bush Tribute Cafe.
I went to post nail polish to people on Monday, and was told at the crazy post office that it is illegal. Yesterday I went to the sane post office and they agreed that yes, it was, even though it's ridiculous. I have written to the management of Australia Post to ask why, and how the Australian nail polish supplies are kept current and in season given the lack of an indigenous industry. Worst-case scenario, I will ship things to the appropriate countries with travellers ;-)
Finally, Air France and KLM are going to charge obese passengers an extra 75% to book the seat next to them, which will be refunded if that seat is empty due to low carriage numbers. I want to know if I can also book a second seat for 75% of a discount price? That's enough space for me to have a reasonable nap! Surely it would be discrimination to charge small people more!
So, now that the airlines have decided it's really all about making sure people are 'comfortable', I think we should all get involved and tell them what would make air travel truly enjoyable. I can't see a return to neat stewarding staff and edible food, but I am sure we can have a few pleasant changes. So ...
Poll #1514553 Air travel gets madder
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 73
Which airline change/s would you support?
20% surcharge for people who kick the back of your seat![]()
![]()
59 (80.8%)
30% surcharge for people who loudly discuss abdominal surgery![]()
![]()
28 (38.4%)
40% surcharge for people who loudly discuss toilet training children![]()
![]()
31 (42.5%)
Fines for parents who fail to take care of their children in a reasonable fashion![]()
![]()
60 (82.2%)
Extra discounts on duty free and seat rebates for parents who do a good job, even if the kids are shits![]()
![]()
38 (52.1%)
Blowdarts containing sedatives given to all women on flights containing sporting teams![]()
![]()
42 (57.5%)
Passengers able to mute/demand $5 from service staff who are cheery in the final hours of a 27 hour flight![]()
![]()
26 (35.6%)
Perfume ban![]()
![]()
50 (68.5%)
Complusory low-scent deodorant usage![]()
![]()
46 (63.0%)
Person who designed menu's phone number printed on every ticket![]()
![]()
33 (45.2%)
I'm sure there are other great ideas out there, feel free to share!
So do these folks. I'm off to show some love!
But still ... Channel 10 has just ran another 'Australians are short of Vitamin D!' story. Now this in itself is not my problem: there are some parts of Australian society that do have very low levels (generally the elderly and people who simply do not go outside). However, this wasn't how the ads ran nor how the presenter introduced the story.
This is: "There's a new health warning about the sun! Apparently we're not getting enough of it!"
This story has been floating around for the past few years, since a position statement on Australian levels of Vitamin D was published in the Medical Journal of Australia. In it, we read:
Older people who are institutionalised or housebound are at a particularly high risk of vitamin D deficiency. For example, up to 80% of women and 70% of men living in hostels or nursing homes in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia were frankly deficient in vitamin D, and 97% had a 25-OHD level below the median value of the healthy reference range.8,9 There also appears to be a significant prevalence of mild vitamin D deficiency in younger adults, particularly during winter.5
Groups for whom low vitamin D levels have been documented include:
* older people in low- and high-level residential care;8-10
* older people admitted to hospital;11
* patients with hip fracture;12,13
* dark-skinned women (particularly if veiled);14-16 and
* mothers of infants with rickets (particularly if dark-skinned and veiled).17
It is therefore prudent to expose hands, face and arms to 1/3 MED of sunlight most days. Box 1 shows approximate exposure times for various regions, months and skin types. But there is a caveat: deliberate exposure to sunlight between 10:00 and 14:00 (or 11:00 and 15:00 daylight saving time) in the summer months is not advised. If adequate sunlight exposure to generate sufficient endogenous cholecalciferol is not possible, then a vitamin D supplement of at least 400 IU (10 μg) per day is recommended.
Happily, I can report that the journalist's actual report was more moderate and differentiated the recommended doses for skin colours and for those who wore more clothing for cultural reason. It also finished with a responsible note, saying that no one was recommending we sunbathe over here, rather that five minutes a day, five times a week, or a vitamin supplement would be ample.
So a gold star to Amber Muir, and a smack to the back of the head to the Channel 10 production team.
In happier news, HAPPY BIRTHDAY
I have a cold. Boo!
It seems mild. Phew!
We are considering Pilates, is this wise?
She Stoops to Conquer is more amusing than I remembered. *Covets the fashions*
