There's one superstition from my mom's side of the family (Oklahoma via Appalachia? I'm not sure) that addresses what accidentally dropping silverware portends. A spoon: you'll soon be visited by a woman. A knife: you'll soon be visited by a man. (Really subtle gender stuff there, huh.) A fork, I can't remember. Anyway, a few minutes ago, I dropped 3 spoons: a teaspoon, a serving spoon, and an ice tea spoon.

Gee, I hope I don't have to greet the Hecatae soon...at least, such visits never turned out very well in The Sandman...

Maybe I should be thinking up my best 3 questions, just in case.

NASA and a bunch of sponsors are webcasting this once in a lifetime event.

I personally cannot WAIT!

This video is fascinating and frustrating. The visuals are great - the project this man undertook was mind-boggling, and such a priceless legacy to the city. But the translation - the English subtitles - is stingy and as far as I can tell, has little content of use. I wish someone would do a good job of translating the entire spoken text of this thing. I'm sure we miss 95% of what is important and interesting.

But most of all, my heart hurts at the idea of this man devoting 11 years to this wonderful project, only to die in poverty and obscurity. Looks like Prague is appreciating him now. I guess that's something.

And many more to come!

You're part of what is great about the internet! Friends all over the world! Thank you, vilakins, for sharing your wonderfulness with your friends here on LJ!

Terry

Here's wishing you lots of cake! and hugs and smiles!

And many more happy returns of the day.

8^D

Found out how it works. I got to see the first ten shows of the first season of Fringe for free; then the only options are pay-for, which they provide a list of links for. Since I can't afford what those charge for it, I guess I'm out of luck until it turns up to stream off Netflix. If ever. *sigh* it's really good, too. Oh well. Threre's lots of really good stuff out there.

I'm wanting to watch all of the series FRINGE. I found a place online where they apparently have them, tv.com. I know nothing about this site - can anyone tell me if these are legitimate, paid-for episodes, okay'ed by Fox? (Not that I love Fox, far from it, but since I have strong feelings about copyright etc, I don't want to be hypocritical and watch pirated copies.)

Is tv.com legit?

(Oh, and I can't watch it on TV because I don't have TV any more. I'd thought it was available on Netflix, but apparently not.)

I usually don't bother asking anybody. But this time, xkcd has baffled me and I really would like to know what this is about:

http://xkcd.com/

(that's Monday, April 9, 2012's cartoon, in case you see this later. It's the one about the oceans. And something.)

1. Go to page 7 (or 77) of your current WIP.
2. Go to line 7.
3. Copy the next 7 sentences or paragraphs and post them as they’re written.


He flipped off the flashlight, and moved to stand next to a tall, shadowy shrub several yards off the path. The stars were still bright enough to illuminate the scene, except for the deepest shadows. He scanned the whole area. Nothing moved.
Where was Alan? Where was Ms. Innes? Did he dare go past that cabin now?


That's from my NaNoWriMo 2011 novel. ('splains why it's so wordy in spots.)

And what, exactly, is this meme supposed to do?

I was writing this to a friend:

"... then afterwards I'll go do my errands. Hmm...the mower fixer guy's place is right on the way, I could stop by and ask them how much they'll charge to come get and then return my mower....what's the word I want? It's not (lol) "fluffed up" - it's not "refurbished" or "refreshed" - is there an adjective for a mower that has had its insides examined and cleaned and any needed repairs done, in preparation for the new mowing season? Seems like there should be..."

Of course it doesn't have to be a mower. Isn't there a good adjective for this usage? I'm frustrated. Any ideas, O Great Hive Mind?

I'm sitting here enjoying my first cup of coffee, and I've got the windows open (glorious!), and a mob of sparrows suddenly decided to have World War III outside the window to my right. O'Keefe completely lost her mind - now, there IS a nice hamper under the window, with a nice soft blanket folded neatly on top JUST for the cats - but can she just hop up there and peer out at the birds? NO! She has to - at TOP speed - streak from the hassock, up my leg, onto the arm of the chair (whether MY arm is already there or not), across the cluttered side-table (and always the MOST congested part of it), to pause, entirely focused on the bush out side the window, with her front half standing in the middle of the rubble that was my side-table and her back half standing on the arm of the chair, with her butt in my face, and her tail twitching.

Repeatedly she has to do this. Because after making that dramatic Major Predator pause, instead of jumping over to the nice soft blanket RIGHT AT THE WINDOW, she jumps down onto the floor and trots back to her original spot at the foot of the hassock. Repeatedly.

Tell me again, why do I have cats?

I've used Google ig ever since they inflicted ig on us, as my homepage. I keep extensive bookmarks there, along with a few other gadgets. This morning, with no notice, my bookmark list is suddenly FUBAR. Instead of a nice long box with most of my first set of bookmarks listed in order by title, there's a stingy little box and they're scrambled, and what's more, they're in two columns so the full titles of the bookmarks aren't even visible. I have roved around the Google site trying to find a fix, or at least an explanation, to no avail. Has this happened to anyone else? Do you know what's going on?

And perhaps - much as my furnished-rut personality hates it - it's time to find another page to plunk my bookmarks onto? Is there such a place? How does everyone else store their bookmarks to places they use every day and/or want as references and handy?

ETA: I finally accidentally stumbled across the comment page about the new "features" - it's NOT just me - there's a mob forming over there with pitchforks and torches.

Does anyone know if there's a simple way to copy one's bookmarks en masse to a (say) NeoOffice document, and set *that* as one's homepage? (I think I know how to set it as the homepage, if Mac OS X will allow a document on its hard drive to be used as an internet home page. I hope.)

This is SO cool.

Even if it did really happen 30 million years ago.

I suppose it's really really silly to hope there were no living beings destroyed by this supernova.

I so love this man.

Does anyone know anything about Hephaestus Books?

Take a look at this call for fans who might be interested in participating in a tv show about fen.

Look what they're asking for. Ages 16 - 25 or thereabouts? Does that look like the demographic YOU see at Cons? Look at the photo behind the post. Does that give you the slightest idea that this show is - at the zygote stage - already making fun of fans?

Looks like krep to me. Sometimes it's a good thing that most pilots shows never even get broadcast...

Six-Legged Giant Finds Secret Hideaway, Hides For 80 Years

(I have somehow lost my ability to create live links. I have to put the whole, naked URL here. Sorry.)

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/02/24/147367644/six-legged-giant-finds-secret-hideaway-hides-for-80-years

Your dose of Cute for the day:






ETA: reduced frame size of embedded video.

And number 6,350,876,001: Thanks Kent!

So I'm going to try to post more often here. I don't think lack of posts from outside was what got Specul8ons purged, but just in case...

I'm starting an online course in how to use Scrivener today. I bought it when NaNoWriMo started Nov. 1, and since there was no time to really mess around with it before that started, I used it pretty much like a word processor - didn't even explore too many of its bells & whistles. I still don't know what-all it's got, so I'm hoping this course will teach me. I do think having it helped me "win" NaNo this time, mostly because it's got the concurrent word-count goal bar over there on the side so you can see how close you are to your goal for the session. Also, I used egg.timer to set up two one-hour sessions split by a five-minute break each night; while I didn't write every night, I *did* keep the butt planted on the chair for those two hours every night I did write. Good experience. Reminds me what it takes.

I just tried to log into the Speculations LJ and I got a page that says it's been deleted! WTF???

I'm watching an old Sherlock Holmes TV series on DVD. Can't remember the Holmes actor's name yet, I just started. But just now there was a shot of Holmes's chemistry shelf at the beginning of a new scene. A line of bottles had labels - plain white labels with black block letters: "Poison" "Strong poison" "DEADLY poison" "SNAKE POISON" and then "Tea."

lol

Here's a great article about the beneficial effects of bilingualism at an early age. I love it, since it appears that my granddaughter, age 3, is already there. Yay!

My question - and this has bugged me *forever* and for some reason I've never thought to ask the Great Hive Mind about it, is this: What exactly is meant by the phrase "pursed lips"? I have NEVER understood that, never been able to summon up any kind of mental image of it. WTF does it mean? Can anyone point me to a PHOTO of someone pursing their lips?

Maybe the phrase won't irritate me so much once I know what it's representing.

My son got me all five seasons on DVDs. I'm starting at the beginning, with misgivings. One of the main actors is someone whose work has never EVER impressed me....but I'm assured that If one hangs In There, the rewards of this series are marvelous.

Without any spoilers, anyone care to comment?

I stayed up until midnight, remarkably, since I hadn't intended to. I watched Harry Potter VII on TV, then read awhile and suddenly there were fireworks exploding outside and guys running up and down the street yelling and laughing, and some more fireworks, and then it got quiet again and I went to sleep.

So, here we are in 2012. Huh.

Just a few days ago I first came across this on someone's blog. I was reading along, and suddenly there were tiny white spots floating across my field of vision. I blinked. They kept floating. I blinked several times, harder. They were still there. I took a couple deep breaths and inventoried how my chest felt, was I breathing well? Did my heart hurt? WTF???

Could it be something on this particular web site? I scrolled back to the top - and there was the answer - it was some kind of animated graphic of gently falling snow!

Crap, I thought I was having a stroke!

And now I'm seeing the damned things everywhere. And every time my first reaction is to blink, hard, before I remember.

What's next - the field of view irises closed to blackness so I'll think I'm checking out for good?

Yeesh. Sure, it's a nice effect - but couldn't we keep it within the bounds of the blog's header graphic? Why does it have to float across the whole page?

Or maybe I'm just processing leftover Grinchitude.