I went to 12:10 Eucharist at SSJE with sk8eeyore (Sarah) and marketsquare (Chris) today.  (Who knew there was a monastery/chapel on Mem. Drive next to JFK Park?  Not me.)  ( Read more... )

I invited them back to Spangler for lunch and felt bad that I then abandoned them to go back to my desk (having already essentially taken my lunch hour).

Chris: "How do you two know each other?"
Sarah: "From LiveJournal, I guess."
Chris: "Oh, the old-fashioned way."
     Heart like whoa!  So much better than last time when we (and Ari) tried to explain LiveJournal to Jan :)

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I learned that Labor Day weekend (well, Friday-Sunday) is:
Liberating Love, Celebrating Hope!
The National More Light Presbyterians Conference
Atlanta, GA. - August 31-September 2, 2007

I'm tempted (would be moreso if they actually had a schedule up).  I would feel really weird taking Friday off the week I get back, though.  Maybe next year?  (Not that I don't have enough travel plans for next year already.  If Convo turns out to be awesome, it had better not conflict with WriterCon next year.)

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maechi links to this article on Joss' Comic-Con appearance (did I miss him having a 2nd kid?).  Contains the same Buffy comic casting spoiler as in the "Ripper" link from my previous post.

Excerpt which many of you will appreciate:

Whedon then took a moment to tell the audience about a pet project he's been working on for some time: "I'm composing the score for a short film, a ballet starring Summer Glau." The film is called "The Serving Girl," and Whedon is reportedly in talks with a "great choreographer."

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They now have tags on the machines in the gym explaining that you can plug your headphones into the thingies they attached to the machines and switch between the half a dozen channels (each tv is on a different channel, so switching it on your machine switches which one your headphones tune to).

I didn't push quite as hard on the elliptical today as I did last time, but still respectable:
1mi @ 11:23min
2 mi @ 23:05min
2.58?mi @ 30min

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I've been drafting a post about the daily_deviant thing, so hopefully I can get that finished when I get back from Convo -- kicking off IBARW.

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soundingsea has the most comprehensive coverage I've seen of the Twin Cities bridge collapse.

"The Interstate Hwy. 35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed during the evening rush hour Wednesday, dumping an estimated 50 vehicles into the water and onto the land below"

Word Origin Calendar: February 1

February This month of midwinter takes its name from the Latin februa, which refers to ritual cleansing. Normally the coldest month of the year in southern Europe, the time was ripe for illness---whence the related word "fever"---that required prayer and magic if it was to be driven away.

We've had such a mild winter that I was so thrown to read, "Spring is at last entering the world [...] It feels wonderful to see it coming," on my flist yesterday.

Remarking on Punxsutawney Phil this year, Gillian said: Thus, we can "reasonably" expect an early Spring...to go with the Spring already in progress, the one that used to be called Winter.

Earlier this week, I was thinking how six weeks from February 2 is still before the vernal equinox, so I don't see how "six more weeks of winter" is such a death knell.  I fully admit that I love the winter weather, but it just doesn't seem right for spring to come before mid-March (and warm weather shouldn't start in earnest before April).

When I was walking home around six-something tonight, I think there were flakes of snow falling (it was hard to tell 'cause there were very few and I couldn't do the clothing test 'cause I was just wearing a pale sweater).  When I went out again about an hour later, it felt like mist, and it was warm enough that the ground was just wet.  Now it definitely sounds (and looks) like rain.  According to the ten-day forecast, after these past couple days of highs near 40F we aren't even gonna get as high as freezing for days, so I'm a bit concerned (and annoyed that I'm not getting snow).

Word Origin Calendar: February 2

Mundane In a sad case of demotion, mundane once meant something like "found the world over," from the Latin mundus, "world." Something found the world over can be glorified as universal or derided as common

That's so intuitive now that someone tells me, but I'd never thought of it before.

I have a bunch of anecdotes from work from the past couple days, but I can probably sum up as: "FormerUnitHead?  Still my favorite"; also, the recruiting decision meeting was this afternoon, and I called Spain.

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Joss' post on Whedonesque about how he is no longer doing the Wonder Woman movie (because the P.S. is made of awesome).


And while I'm linking, fox1013 posted:

I decided to go ahead and set up the LJ comm for reading books out loud to each other.

bedtimeforlj

Though unfortunately, phoneposting has been on the fritz.  [They did set up a toll-free number for paid users.]

Actual update, forthcoming, but it occurs to me that it needs to be said:

Today's NYT interview with Joss about Serenity: "there's rather a major, if vague, spoiler in one of the interview questions" (as musesfool puts it). I say, if you haven't seen the movie, don't read the article. [If you have seen it, the link is here.]

Spoiler-free excerpt behind the cut (because it's rather lengthy): ( Read more... )

My brother and i started watching Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Clearly i have been spoiled by the Monty Python and the Holy Grail movie, which is consistently very funny. The series thus far (episodes 4-6 of Season 1, episodes 23-24 of Season 2) has been unimpressive.

However, Gavin Millarrrrrrrrrr’s commentary on Shunt's Utopia (the murder play with the train schedules from 2.24 -- scroll here or view in plain text here) was surrealist in a way that reminded me of the Questions game from Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (not that i am claiming it to be even near as brilliant) and made me want to memorize it just to be able to reel it off at random moments.

( requisite WWE Smackdown discussion )

Of interest to at least a couple people i know is the following from Joss Whedon over on Browncoats:

Here's an odd little story:

Summer did read for Kitty in X3. I know because she called me and mentioned she was going to and did I know anything about the character (there were no 'sides' to study -- they had to get them when they came in). So the girl I turned into sort of a superhero in my movie was going to read for the character that most influenced ALL my girl-heroes, Kitty Pryde. Karmically funky. Anyhoo, she called me after and said it was very emotional and kind of like when she read for FIREFLY, she just got into a very intense groove. She started telling me about the scene she read and that's when I realized WHY it was kind of like she read for FIREFLY. 'Cause (as you may know) it was a scene I wrote for Astonishing X-Men issue #5. I assume they just didn't have sides ready and used that but this was like a karmic moebius strip, it was just too folded in on itself. In this time of odd, I turned to beer. (No I didn't. Stay in school.)

I don't know what the X-peeps are looking for -- or even if that other girl has really dropped out -- but for my money, Summer would make a wonderful Kitty. (And I don't say that lightly.) As long as it doesn't interfere with SERENITY II: RICARDO MONTALBAN'S STILL PISSED -- or, much more importantly, SERENITY III: SO VERY NUDE.

I have job interviews in the offing. This pleases me. I have an eye exam appointment next Wednesday. I should probably schedule a physical while i still have health insurance, huh?

I met Emma at the Museum of Science today for an all-too-brief visit. We had lunch at Halftime Pizza right across from the North Station commuter rail station, and i was actually pleased with the food.

(Note to MBTA users: The Lechmere Green Line currently stops at North Station. Thus to access the Museum of Science you can get off at Government Center and transfer to a bus, or you can get off at North Station and walk.)

There’s a new sign on the FormerlyFleetCenter. From tdbanknorthgarden.com, says “Go ahead, call it the Garden again.” This made me happy.

Doing research for a fic (i swear) i learned that ( the MLN catalog is sorely lacking )

[Poll #524047]

I’m amused that i’m more interested in rereading the first 5 HP books to read fic rather than in anticipation of Book6.

( more polls, this time involving icons )