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| Monday, December 21st, 2009 |
digitalemur
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11:48p |
Posted using TxtLJ
Mmm, bad tv and texting each other across the room. Perfect, except that family guy sort of makes me queasy. My mobile drops voice a lot here but email and web |
digitalemur
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11:48p |
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redswami
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7:32p |
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jendaviswilson
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1:21p |
Surmountable challenges
So last Tuesday Jack and I went to the "needs and services" meeting at his soon-to-be daycare. Which I had envisioned as a grownup sit-down at a table and looking over the 100-page form they had me fill out (all the while knowing what I was writing was doomed to be obsolete in two weeks). No, I basically just came into the "classroom", plunked Jack on the floor with the other babies, sat on the carpet and talked with the teachers while they went about changing diapers and putting babies to bed and all. Which was nice, I am all about low-key. I am not all that ready yet to wrap my head around people who are authority figures for my children. I am enough of a brown-nosing apple-polishing yes-ma'aming respecter of authority that I can't even bring myself to contemplate parent-teacher conferences. So anyway, it went well and I liked the atmosphere, and I left with some information about Jack's soon-to-be schedule so that I could start getting him on something similar at home. Of course all infant programs are "on demand", which means babies keep their own schedules, but that seems to be more for sleeping and bottles. Solid food is at 11:30 and 3pm. Ok, no problem. Also, I should start figuring out how much milk he drinks at what times, as they don't save breastmilk after a feeding. And one teacher commented on how he should probably start working on finger foods now, which we were sorta doing but Jack doesn't like cheerios much, and most other foods are too messy to let him try to feed himself. So I set out with ( these supposedly easy tasks in mind: ) |
thistleingrey
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12:56p |
three on verse
...specifically English translations of sijo, the Korean lyric form consisting of three lines per stanza. Each stanza averages a total of 45 syllables, and each line has four phrase-groupings divided by major pauses. This description is from Kim ( infra), who specifies that the pauses aren't caesuras because Korean verse does not have metrical feet; nevertheless, stress patterns may "contribute to the beauty of its rhythms" (p. 233). I pulled these volumes (in April) from browsing in the library stacks: take that, proponents of offsite closed storage. I left on the shelf a fourth book, a survey of sijo written during the twentieth century. Why? Perhaps it was enough to carry five books upstairs at once. (The other two were on yōkai and hangŭl.) p.s. I'm nearly out of books that're (i) in a language I can read (ii) about things pertaining to Korean history/culture, (iii) accessible to me without spending additional money. After that, it's to be regions about which more has been published, which will probably, perversely, lead me to read less. The library does have about three shelves' worth of translated modern and contemporary Korean fiction, but my self-education project was for East Asian Studies, not for becoming a Koreanist.... Kevin O'Rourke, The Book of Korean Shijo (Harvard Univ. Press, 2002) ibid., A Hundred Love Poems from Old Korea (Global Oriental [Folkestone, Kent], 2005) Jaihiun Kim, Modern Korean Verse in Sijo Form (Ronsdale Press [Vancouver, BC], 1997) (A few sijo are translated in David McCann, Early Korean Literature: Selections and Introductions [Columbia Univ. Press, 2000].) ( Read more... )the stackCrossposted from Dreamwidth; please comment there or at /the stack/ (link above).  DW comments. |
thistleingrey
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12:47p |
solstice brings a game
Choice of the Dragon is a text-based choose-your-own-adventure game in which you, a dragon, decide how you'd like to impose your will on interact with the surrounding region. It ought to work on mobile browsers (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, etc.) as well as regular ones. The story is co-written by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) darkforge and cerebralpaladin, with assistance from viking_cat; darkforge designed the programming language + interpreter that enable the game to run. There will be other such games from these folks, so constructive comments/feedback are especially welcome. the stackCrossposted from Dreamwidth; please comment there or at /the stack/ (link above).  DW comments. |
orichalcum
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1:17p |
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cerebralpaladin
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11:58a |
Announcing "Choice of the Dragon"
darkforge and I have written a text-based online game, "Choice of the Dragon." You can play it at http://www.choiceofgames.com/dragon/You play a dragon that likes to kidnap princesses and sleep on a pile of gold and take over the surrounding region. We think it's lots of fun, and we encourage you to play it, have fun, and then tell all your friends about it. :) darkforge wrote the underlying coding language, and we wrote the text and the specific code for this storyline together with some help from viking_cat. More games in a similar style are coming. |
| Sunday, December 20th, 2009 |
digitalemur
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11:17p |
I am warm and dry (the humidity is painfully low) in a hotel room in binghamton. I would have gone further west tonight but there's a decent cheap hotel across from a wegman's here and I didn't leave my house until after five tonight. Tomorrow I get breakfast at weggies and drive west, bound for Ohio, halo, and piratical shenanigans. I just taught my phone to spell shenanigans so I should be all set! (Please, please, don't let EVDO fail me out at the farm.*crosses fingers*) |
meepodeekin
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6:55p |
Happy Birthday, Orichalcum!
May the new year be filled with family, success, and joy! And hopefully we will get to see you sometime this year too! |
darkforge
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3:31p |
Announcing: Choice of the Dragon
I've been working on this game for the past few months: Choice of the Dragon
Play as a fire-breathing dragon who sleeps on gold and kidnaps princesses for fun. In the course of developing the game, I designed a programming language called "ChoiceScript" specifically for multiple choice games; I also wrote a bunch of text for the game, along with cerebralpaladin (with help from viking_cat). Please share this with friends! |
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mryt_maat
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5:41p |
Virgin Wassail: Eggy Hot Cider Posset
I scaled down and "de-alcoholed" a recent Alton Brown Wassail Recipe: www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/wassail-recipe/index.html 1 pint apple cider 1/2 inch fresh ginger root 4 whole cloves 1 stick of cinnamon 3 cardamom seeds (the seeds, not the pods) 3 T. brown sugar 1 egg Combine the cider, spices, and brown sugar in a medium saucepan. Slice up the ginger root and add it. Bring to a simmer, then cover, turn down the heat and let the flavors marry: at least 20 minutes. Separate the egg into two medium bowls. Whip the egg white until stiff peaks form. Beat the yolk until it is homogeneous. Beat the white into the yolk. Strain the cider into a pitcher. Add the hot cider, a few tablespoons at a time, to the egg, beating. Turn the whole mass back into a pan and heat over low until the mixture thickens: about 15 minutes. Keep warm, covered and serve hot. |
jendaviswilson
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2:20p |
Jack's fort
I thought 7 and a half month olds were not capable of having forts. I was wrong. Jack has decided the exersaucer is his fort. It has a big yellow dished base with a lip on it. Jack throws toys in it, bangs his hand in it, and a few times a day manages to get inside, where he hangs out oblivious to the actual "fun" part which forms a ceiling above his head. He lays in the base with his feet kicking against the legs, and pats his hands and chortles to himself. Then he realizes that for some reason it is much easier to get IN to the exersaucer base than OUT of, and gets whiny at me until I rescue him. Which I eventually do, after mocking him and taking photos. |
orichalcum
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2:36p |
A White Birthday
I got 8 inches of snow and health care reform* for my birthday! It's pretty cool. Having never gone successfully sledding in the last 32 years, I think today might be a fun time to start! Then it's time for cheese fondue, Cookie Cake, and the new Doctor Who episode. I was sad that weather prevented some folks from joining us on the Hot Chocolate Crawl, but we still had a lot of fun - though no actually mind-blowing hot chocolate. I think my favorite was Pure Dark, but even that lacked a "wow" moment. Dinner at Meskerem, an Ethiopian restaurant, was also awesome if chaotic (the side effect of your 3-year-old insisting he come to your birthday party, among other things); Robbie LOVED Ethiopian food and ate a quarter pancake of injera and many lentils by himself, although objected slightly to the Very Spicy dish emilymorgan (who, as usual, rocks in the Kid-Entertainment field) tried to feed him. Two amusing incidents from the train ride home: 1. Two young women are running past us, trying to get off the train. The first one stops, sees Robbie, and says, "Awwwww," before dashing off again. Her friend stops behind her, looking annoyed at the delay, then looks over, sees R, says, "Ooh, what a sweet baby," and eventually runs after her friend. 2. I've been trying to inaugurate a tradition of telling Mac "family stories" in addition to stories read from books. On the train, he asked if Daddy "could tell him a story about when Daddy played baseball." So CP obliged. Those of you who know the famous Little League rules lawyering story can skip the next section. CP: So, when I was about ten or eleven, I was on a baseball team. And I wasn't very good at playing baseball, at throwing or catching or running, so on the day of the big playoffs game, I was sitting on the bench. And there were runners on 1st and 3rd base, and the batter got walked. (Lengthy explanation of what a Walk is). So the first base runner walked to 2nd, and then the 3rd base runner started walking home, and I leapt up from the bench shouting "Tag her! Tag her!" And no one else realized, until finally my coach looked at the field again, and started shouting to the catcher "Tag her! Tag her!" And the catcher, totally puzzled, reached out and tagged the girl as she approached home, and the umpire called her out! And I realized that, for a few seconds, I and that umpire had been the only ones on the field who understood what was going on. And then we won that game." Mac: Daddy, when I grow up, I want to be not very good at playing baseball and sit on the bench and yell "Tag her! Tag her!" *No, it's not an ideal bill, but along with everything else, outlawing discrimination against people on basis of pre-existing conditions is a Big Thing for me. Current Mood:  happy |
holmes_iv
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2:03p |
I thought I'd outgrown this shit
OK, so Tuesday I'm flying to Seattle. From Hartford. Via Atlanta. Because that's what's available on Delta before Christmas Eve. <facepalm> The hilarious part is that back when I was in college, I would get up at a ridiculous hour to catch the Metro-North, then connect to a subway, then connect to a bus, to get to JFK by mid-afternoon for my long-ass flight to Seattle. Now? Getting up at a ridiculous hour to catch the Metro-North, then connect to the Shuttle to Hartford, then connect to the local bus to Bradley, to be there by mid-afternoon for yeah you get the picture. <sigh> Current Mood:  aggravated |
holmes_iv
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1:39a |
OK, fine
Next time I'm planning my flight out to Seattle for Christmas, I'll ask around and make sure that nobody else has plans for that weekend. Since apparently I am cursed by snow demons. Upsides: more time to tidy up the apartment before I leave! And at least this time my flight got canceled, instead of delayed 8 hours while we sat on the tarmac waiting for de-icing and runway priority and Godot! Update: Oh, apparently you're not supposed to sleep when this kind of stuff is happening. At 4:00 AM, there were "no similar flights," but at 11:30 AM there is an option to route through Los Angeles... leaving at 2:00 PM. It is literally physically impossible for me to get to that flight, guys. Thanks. Next option? Current Mood:  irritated |
| Saturday, December 19th, 2009 | |
julianyap
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7:13p |
Avatar
So Matt Funk moved to town recently and today, geeks that we are, the two of us went to watch Avatar in 3D. To start with the good: the visuals were stunning. Possibly even better than The Lord of the Rings. Just unbelievable. I completely forgot that 90% of what we were watching was probably computer generated. In fact, I was particularly impressed by the facial features on CGI characters. And the 3D was just astonishing, and used to remarkable effect. If you go watch it, I highly, highly, highly recommend you try to catch it in 3D. And the action scenes were tons of fun, answering the age old question "Who would win in a fight? A horde of dragons or a squadron of helicopters?" And a fight that can only be called "The end of Aliens round two." On the other hand, the plot was, admittedly, kind of campy, and very predictable. And, as I suspected, anyone who studies colonialism will have issues with the show. Since I'm not a terribly critical viewer (I failed to realize that there was a message behind Crash when I saw it), there were probably other things that I missed, or that I could criticize if I thought about it more. But in a very real way, to ask "is Avatar a good movie or a bad movie?" is to totally miss the point. Avatar Is a stupendously awesome movie. Makes me wish that James Cameron had directed and produced the Star Wars prequels, because, y'know, he gets it, and he doesn't try to make the movie anything more than great science-fictiony fun. And at that, he succeeds in spades. |
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mryt_maat
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5:55p |
My kitchen/ pantry
Is almost ridiculously well stocked. On a whim I just made anko, sandwich bread, and am planning an elaborate dinner including an experimental apple cider posset. |
jendaviswilson
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2:35p |
Dog business
We are in the middle of another long Eowyn-sitting stretch. This time she is with us for most of December. It makes me think again about how I wish it were more feasible to get Finn a permanent live-in dog friend. Maybe we'll have to if Eowyn moves away. When Finn is alone, he doesn't do much. But with Eowyn, they have a whole day full of dog business to do. Most of it is incomprehensible to me, and as far as I can tell it involves: - intense but brief barkings at mysterious intruders coming in at various points around the fence - finding small objects inside to relocate outside, such as socks, gloves, baby toys, tissues - finding not-so-small objects outside to jostle for the privilege of chewing on, such as large pieces of decorative driftwood, piles of dried beanstalks (meant to harvest the pods, never did), large sticks, pinecones, dog toys so filthy they aren't really recognizable - flouncing about with tails in the air. Much of this. - intently sniffing spots in the yard together - sleeping. Much, much of this. - attempts to rip each others' throats out and take each other out at the knees, which seems to be enjoyable to all |
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mryt_maat
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2:38p |
Daifuku the old fashioned way
In my 1996 (and to date only) trip to Japan, I had the opportunity to cook a total of once. For a kid who had grown up making or eating home-cooked meals almost every night, not being able to cook just made Japan feel even more surreal and "different." I remember paying attention during our lesson, but assuming I would never use the knowledge because there was no way I would ever find the special ingredients. The dough and the red bean paste were already prepared when we got there: we pretty much just assembled them. My daifuku-cravings were met with occasional raids in Midtown Manhattan to Minamoto Kitchoan ( http://www.kitchoan.com/)until I found that my local Super H Mart and even Wegman's carry fresh ones. Thirteen years later, I finally had both the ingredients and a recipe. I give you the deceptively simple text as provided in "World Cuisine: Japan" Ingredients for 20 Daifuku - dough- 250 g. glutinous rice flour 300 ml water 100 g sugar 1 t. yomogi herb powder* - red bean filling (anko)- 500 g. azuki beans 500 g. sugar 50 g glucose# pinch of salt First make the anko. Soak the beans in water for at least 12 hours, then drain and boil in fresh water for 45 minutes. Drain. Put in a fresh pan over medium heat with a little water until it comes to boil. When it comes to boil, add in the sugar, salt and glucose, little by little, stirring. After about three hours** a marzipan texture should form. Allow to cool. For the dough: Mix the flour and water and boil in a bowl set over simmering water for 20 minutes.% Remove the dough from the heat and divide into two bowls. Add half of the sugar to one of the bowls and stir until a white, compact and homogeneous dough is formed. Mix the other half of the sugar with the powdered yomogi then ad to the other bowl with the dough and stir with a wooden spoon. Sprinkle a little corn flour (corn starch) on the working surface and mix together the two doughs. Finally, with a rolling pin, roll out the dough until the thickness is about 5mm.%% Place tablespoons of anko over the dough, then cut into portions, seal and form small round balls.$ *I used Matcha because even I don't know what this is. # I just left this out. ** No, they are not kidding. I did something else. I'll post it later today. % Much like Pate a Chioux, this sounds worse than it is. It does make cleanup a bear. %% At lest they are exact. $ This, like the directions in a Martha Stuart publication, sounds easy but takes some skill. I imagine people who are good with ravioli might be good at this. I am not. Points: Each pastry is about 2 to 3 points, depending on how big you make them. |
thistleingrey
|
10:31a |
ending 19 dec
* darkforge and I spent over an hour "discussing" a phrase in a game he's written with a friend. (I'll link it upon release.) The phrase was "dimension of torture," and the discussion became a bit complicated because, with the copy-editor hat on, I tried to represent received wisdom about writing craft that I myself cannot wield successfully. Basically, if it's clear in this scene that the protagonist knows nothing about how demon beasties are summoned, and if we've had no talk of summoning or extraplanar realms hitherto, why does the narrative tell the player/reader that a beastie has come from a "dimension of torture"? What does that mean? Why not employ some other detail pertinent to the scene to help the player see what's going on and how it matters to the player-controlled protagonist, who's probably about to die? * There have been many things. Tomorrow there's a wedding, a civil ceremony at which darkforge will officiate, just as one of the celebrants officiated at ours. He totally knows what he's going to say, too! (Finished a good draft late last night.) * The fibercraft update I began writing seven weeks ago can wait a little longer, and then there'll be pictures. The gift piece that needed seaming in October is now late because it turned out also to need edges knitted on (and because something similarly non-portable scooted ahead of it in the queue); well, now I've learned how to pick up stitches. Serious miscalculation of timing. Though I task-switch pretty well, I can't pick up stitches or sew ends in neatly while watching tv, so I should've been watching less, recently. * Had a bit of a meltdown Monday night, unexpectedly, when the frustrations of all the things I can't do anything to improve came crashing together. I've been having to remind myself to eat lunch, hungry or not, which ought to've been a clue. N.B. Suggestions are not solicited at this time---thanks. the stackCrossposted from Dreamwidth; please comment there or at /the stack/ (link above).  DW comments. Current Mood:  busy |
| Friday, December 18th, 2009 |
holmes_iv
|
5:40p |
Big Day, Part 2
As of two minutes after 5:00 PM today (hopefully the prof doesn't decide to be a hard-ass about that—stupid web-based assignment submission system!) I have turned in my last assignment. For my last class. Of my last semester of graduate school. Or, more succinctly, DONE!!!! I'd be happier if I didn't need to worry about that professorial discretion issue, or if I'd managed to get motivated to do a better job on this last assignment, but still. DONE. Thank you. Goodnight. Who wants a beer? Current Mood:  relieved |
thistleingrey
|
11:53a |
masked butterflies dreaming
Shan Sa, The Girl Who Played Go, trans. Adriana Hunter (2003): two voices, those of a Chinese student and a Japanese soldier, alternate in ninety-two brief chapters set during the 1930s Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Their perspectives converge in the Square of a Thousand Winds, where strangers meet and play a tactical board game with a long history. We glimpse the student's sister's unhappy marriage, the soldier's required observation of a lieutenant administering torture, the range of possible fates open to the student versus to a Manchurian classmate, the soldier's letters home to his mother, and a contrast between the student's crush-polygon with young revolutionaries and the prostitute whom the soldier visits regularly. I found this to be . . . I think the word is "successful," and much more so than Alexander and Alestria, perhaps because it attempts a smaller canvas but paints it with greater precision and acuity. The reviewers who found that the book drops off towards the end baffle me, but perhaps the disparity between our expectations is very slightly a cultural thing. Sure, it's a narrative cheat, but given the narrative's construction and its flirtations with having characters' actions represent (momentarily) bits of the histories associated with their respective ethnic identities, how could the story end otherwise? Subject line: not a song---look up Zhuangzi, whose name I've put here because *I* always forget it. the stackCrossposted from Dreamwidth; please comment there or at /the stack/ (link above).  DW comments. |
| Thursday, December 17th, 2009 |
jendaviswilson
|
10:04p |
Jack update: Still not crawling...yet
Jack is now a master of a variety of yoga poses, all of which are very close to, but not quite, crawling. He hasn't figured out that moving his hands is important. Instead he goes up on tippytoes in downward-dog, then down on one knee, then the other, then rocking, then he gives up and just army-crawls to where he wants to go. His army-crawling is quite effective, but not as fast or as easy as he would like. It doesn't stop him from finding and dumping out every toy bin in the sunroom multiple times a day. He has also recently acquired opinions about food. Today he has decided to become a bananatarian. I was concerned that he didn't like textures, but no, he just doesn't like Cheerios. Bananas and bread are perfectly ok. Cheerios are just too hard. Watching him eat things that require "chewing" is hilarious. He has to think about it. If he gets distracted (which he does, constantly) he will stop and forget about the food in his mouth. He has become easier to read to. He no longer tries to grab the book. If he is bored, he just squirms. He prefers the books with sound effects. _Mr. Brown Can Moo_ and _Dogs_ are favorites. I don't read the sound effects, I make them as realistic as possible. The lollipop-pop sound and dog howling are favorites. He cranes around and stares at me with a wide open happy smile. Something in the last month or so has changed. I now can see a little person inside. He understands things and reacts. It's like he is going to bust out with a full sentence at any moment, but can only muster "Bababababa. Ttthhhhh. Dididid." We may have had our first baby-caused household illness. About a week ago, Jack threw up sometime in the middle of the night. He then was low-key and didn't have an appetite for a day or so. Then two days ago Michael came home feeling pretty awful, and the next day I did too. It seemed to be a very mild stomach virus, and we're over it, but we know who to blame. I am very relieved about having secured a daycare for Jack, but I have mixed feelings about going back to work. I love being around Jack, but he does fragment my attention. I have gotten a couple of projects to do for work from home, and it is basically impossible to do them while he is awake, since they require too long of an attention span than he allows me. On the other hand, how am I going to handle not having a baby belly handy whenever I need to kiss one? |
outlawradio
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10:11p |
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