burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

Due to dinner delays, we didn't get to UCN until maybe 7:30. I chatted with Mike F., gave Bev a backrub [I really don't think I'm that awesome; I think people are just easy], and then went to work at the booktable (though I took a break when Tim came by, learned he and Carla are adopting a baby from China).

My mom had mentioned that sometimes people will complain about the books, and then my grandma feels bad, so I took out the V. C. Andrews (Celeste, April Shadows, and the first in the Wallflowers series: Misty) and also the Harlequin Temptation Single in the City book (because of the cover; Edit: And flipping it open, the excerpt pulled for the pre-page is totally soft-core porn.). I had forgotten that probably 80-90% of the adult book section is Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel, and assorted other romance novels. We also have Dorothy Sayers, P. G. Wodehouse, Agatha Christie, Dan Brown (Angels & Demons), and -- in the kids' section -- one of the Harry Potter books. Oh my conservative evol church :) I actually want someone to complain about Harry Potter being there so then I can argue that we shouldn't be selling romance novels, because I vehemently and honestly believe traditional romance novels are more damaging.

I also snagged The Seventeen Book of Answers to What Your Parents Don't Talk About and Your Best Friends Can't Tell You because it's copyright 1972 and the source of this post's Subject line (well, my reaction to it was this Subject line). I may actually keep this and give them money. It's not wildly entertaining, though certainly interesting. Of course I immediately looked for the sex/gay parts when I started flipping through it. The subcategory "Homosexuality" (under "Sex") has the following 4 questions:
* How should you feel about a homosexual?
* The man I love is a homosexual.
* Will I ever be normal?
* She must be a lesbian.

The first two do a decent job of saying we don't know what causes homosexuality and you should treat people with decency and respect period. The fourth one is fairly decent as well. The third one, though, is a fifteen and a half year old girl who sounds pretty gay to me, and I certainly believe that sexuality is (can be) fluid and that adolescence especially is a time of exploration, but their response included basically no validation of the possibility that she might really be a lesbian. I'm actually gonna type up this one. I'm sure you can imagine my mental commentary as you read. ( Will I ever be normal? )

***

My parents don't have facebook, so tonight I showed them the link I'd posted on Monday. I also shared AIR DOES NOT LIKE YOU and America: Beware the penguin agenda.

Friday morning the flist was all aflutter over the nudge feature.  It's not on news and I didn't even notice the button on UserInfos.  Supposedly it sends a form letter.  Apparently it only works for mutual friends who haven't posted in a week or more, and I'll concede that the list of inactive journals could be handy, but a form letter seems tres gauche.  (This is an interesting idea for using the function if it let you nudge any user and write your own message.)

Catching up on the flist now, I hear S1 has tag support.  This should have happened from the very beginning, and I still find the tag thing problematic because tags only show the 50 most recent entries, so people using tags instead of Memories (as opposed to using both, since I do grant the convenience of tags) makes me right pissed.  [Sidenote: Is there any reason Memories is forever giving people the message "The memories feature is temporarily unavailable." forcing them to refresh umpteen times?  Couldn't the LJ team expend some effort on that?]

Back to Friday:

musesfool: Speaking of which, I have fic wanting to be written. Why it's not writing itself, I will never understand.
hermionesviolin: Word, yo. I have assorted fics from last year that need to be kicked into shape and somehow they have yet to turn themselves into finished products.
musesfool: It's unacceptable! Lazyass stories, making us do all the work!

'Twas a slow day, and I was attempting to work on my fic for seanarenay's resurrection of the incest challenge, but writing pr0n at work is weird.  I was also attempting to work on another one of my fics and realizing I may have two mutually exclusive timelines happening in the same fic.  I need to actually write down a timeline so I can keep it straight (the fic switches between present and past) and finish the fic.

Jasmine and I were talking just on Thursday about evolution of language and suchlike, but dude, it's spelled "Shepherd."  One who herds sheep.  Okay, the SGA character's last name is spelled Sheppard, but when you come from an Abbey and it's a title, it's Shepherd.

Watching Millionaire, the $100 question was: Smokey the Bear and Woodsy Owl are representatives of what organization?  (Or something like that.)  Heart the D. option: Bureau of Self-Righteous Icons.

'Round 3:00, my temp agency dropped by, with balloons and a gift (jelly beans and an AmEx giftcard).  "Associate of the Month" (for December; no idea why it takes them so long).  So cheesy, but hey, gifts.  Prof. MW came by and saw the balloons and asked what the occasion was and I explained and said I got jelly beans and money too and he said, "I hope it's lots and lots of money -- so much money you don't know what to do with it."

A note came with the gifts, reading in part: You have always stepped up to the plate whenever we have called you for assignments with many of our clients.  Your supervisor has rated you as an excellent Associate and we are proud of your performance.  You have received positive feedback from your supervisor on your assignment such as: "Elizabeth has been doing a great job- good enough to consider her for a full time position."  The American Express gift card is our way of saying "thank you" for your outstanding job performance, flexibility and positive attitude.

Cynical people might have comments.  Proving that I sometimes do have a filter between brain and mouth, I just thanked them.

No way was I taking the balloons home with me, but it occurred to me to give them to Mary Alice to give them to her son (it's a bunch of normal balloons filled with helium and one shiny one saying "Congratulations").  "I won't tell him they're second-hand," she said, "I'll just tell him they're from a colleague" -- which is true enough as far as it goes.  She told me multiple times how thoughtful I was, and I was so glad the balloons could go to a good home 'cause it would have been so sad to come back in Tuesday morning (yeah three-day weekend!) and see them all wilted.

After work, I went out to dinner with hedy and my mom (onwingsofeagles).  I got an avocado & havarti melt, half-size fruit salad, and a smoothie.  Yum.

Then we went to see Home -- which I had gone to the staged reading of last summer.  (Staged reading reaction here; reaction to this version here.)

Came home and slept for a huge amount of time, which was bliss.

Then I watched Pulp Fiction with my brother.  Um, okay.

We had my grandma over tonight to celebrate her birthday (which actually happens on Monday).  After dinner [complete with Riesling :) ], presents, and dessert, we watched March of the Penguins.  Nice, but not as amazing as it had been made out to be.  The anthropomorphizing was kept to a reasonable minimum.  I would have preferred more tragedy, but (a) I'm nobody's target audience, (b) it was marketed as a family film.

We rounded out the evening with DVD of my brother sledding on the hill outside his dorm at school.  (Choice quotes from the cameraman: "You're officially an idiot" and "You suck at sledding.")