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Friends
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It was a good Christmas, very different, but good. I had a wonderful time today with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) faganthepure's family. I was also able to make something good happen. One of his relatives is a Marine and could not be there. They wanted to video chat with him. Fagan's mom had no wireless in her house and the system they watned to use was a new netbook. It was an older setup but I was able to hook my Mac to it, get it to give me the internet connection and then use my Mac to rebroadcast it. So they could bring the whole family in. I was glad to be of such help. There was also good food and fun game playing. Now I am at newperspectives house. She gave me my Christmas present. A new fencing mask with a jaguar head! It is just awesome. Picture will be posted soon with other Christmas pictures. Now we are going to snuggle in and watch the Muppet DVD that I gave her. In between there was near disaster when ldybz3 took sgtgwn to the airport and got stuck in traffic. There was a major pile up right before the airport exit. She got her there 40 minutes before flight time and Jen and Sean flew to Texas. Now I will spend the next three days down here in the St Louis area doing things with family and friends.
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 pleased | |
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As I'm surrounded by family, I wish for you in this season of light and peace the very same. Merry Christmas, my friends. |
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Drive to St Louis area went well last night. Christmas morning was nice at the Coode home. I am now at faganthepure's Mom's home for dinner, which is delayed a bit from the original plan. ldybz3 barely got people to the airport due to a pile up on the interstate in front of her. Got the server restarted at work so that is good. I did not have to make anyone go in on Christmas to push a button. More later tonight
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good | |
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Well, it's gotten to be that time of year again that we all gather to enjoy good company (or at least marginally passable company once we've had a few drinks) and revel in that togetherness. We spend time with distant relations we see naught other times of the year, or really sock in some quality hours with our closest and most favorite. Good food, gifts of sharing, a feeling of compassion for those we see for a whole day. So, keep things well for you this day. And Happy Birthday Isaac Newton. |
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One of the absolute most important aspects of Christmas, to me, is the music. Listening to the spectacular Robert Shaw Chorale since I was in single digits probably has something to do with it. Easiest way to get me to shed tears. I really don't care much for modern secular songs--there seems to be a real lack of that blinding unreasonable cosmic joy which the best songs/arrangements have So, while I'm waiting for my turn to wrap presents, here are some of my favorites. (Posting these to share the music, not the images, which aren't so much.) Of course, the ne plus ultra for me is the Tomas Luis de Victoria version of Magnum Mysterium (as performed by the RS bunch), but I can't get it on youtube without a bunch of other stuff. Enjoy!
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 content |
Current Music: |
Robert Shaw Chorale, "Masters in This Hall" | |
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Just finishing up celebrating Christmas Eve with my family. Ann, my step-mom for those that do not know, was only going to make a little light food this year. And yet we are all stuffed and there is food still left over. Always seems to work that way. Gifts have been exchanged and a very good time is being had. Soon I will head to St Louis with ldybz3 and faganthepure as well as Sean. We will stop in Macomb and pick up sgtgwn as Jen and Sean fly out from St Louis tomorrow to Jen's family. We will stay tonight with Fagan's Dad and then go to his Mom's house tomorrow.
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good | |
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Right now the kitchen is sort of a disaster area, with flour, bits of dough, children shrieking at each other, the dog scavenging bits of cookies that didn't make it, dishes to wash.... Outside it's blowing fiercely, putting one in mind of that Christmas on the banks of Plum Creek when Pa had to eat the Christmas candy to survive in the snowbank. it's 21 degrees, according to Kansas.com. State officials are saying it's a very bad idea to travel in Kansas after 6 pm tonight. Inside, the stove is exuding warmth and delicious smells, the Robert Shaw Chorale is swooning away from the next room, the tree is twinkling. I hope you and yours are safe and warm and content tonight.
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content |
Current Music: |
Robert Shaw Chorale, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" | |
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Well, we had a bombshell hit us this morning. For the first time in 41 years, I will not be spending any part of Christmas with my parents. The doctor said that mom is highly contagious--she is just too darn sick for Christmas eve, presents, Christmas supper, the whole nine. This is awful for all of us. We tried to talk Dad into coming to Christmas eve supper here (as he was bringing all the food anyway), or to have Christmas morning with us (watching his grandchildren open presents; we grown ups got nothing for each other this year, upon agreement), or eat Christmas supper with us. Nope, nope, nope. He doesn't want to leave Mom alone, although tomorrow morning he will be bringing his and Mom's Christmas presents.
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 sad | |
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It is Christmas Eve and I have ldybz3 and faganthepure here!! We have had a good night. They got here late, a shock I know. So I took them out to dinner at Jorges the Crooks which is a nice place here in Quincy. It was wine Wednesday so I got them one of the $10 specials. Good times. When we got back to the apartment I had to remotely fix Sean's computer. I have Windows installed on it and he had broken it already. Then Beez got out her computer. It has no power. I have not been able to make it work yet :( Now we have stayed up way late just doing stuff and it is past bedtime. Christmas is here!!!
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good | |
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With newperspectives home sick and ldybz3 driving her car up instead of getting a ride and taking the train, we have many car issues to consider for the next few days. Then I get a call that talkisdead will need a ride back from Springfield on Monday where his dead car is. So I am thinking that leaving my car in Springfield tomorrow night might make sense. I will have to ponder this, but since two vehicles will have to drive up from St Louis to Springfield on Monday anyway, this might be the most sensible plan. Anyone want to volunteer a place for me to park my car over the weekend? Drop off around 11 on Christmas Eve and pick up on Monday in Springfield. Street parking is OK, though I worry about weather. I have to talk this over to see if it is the best option, but it seems like this would be the least total driving for everyone when it is all put together.
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 contemplative | |
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This stemmed from a comment txtriffidranch made. Just what the hell is "pure science fiction," anyway?
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 curious | |
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Mum is very sick with a severe viral infection, which sounds like a worse version of what I had earlier. Elevated heart rate, elevated BP, swollen and inflamed throat, popping ears, copious flow and accumulation of clear mucus.
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 worried | |
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This could be tricky. I guess I’m going to have to ask y’all to specify which meme you’re participating in. XD From elasait. If you respond to this, I will: 1. Tell you why I befriended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a colour, a photo, etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I’ve always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favourite user pic of yours. ( now I don’t know everyone’s variety of pictures so I might have to hunt.) In return, you must post this in your LJ. From kampfrau. The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me. You’ll need to PM me your mailing address if you’re one of the first 5. In return, all you need to do is repost this on your LJ and offer to make 5 things for 5 other people. |
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I go to my mailbox tonight and what do I find? A Christmas card in a very small envelope. This is not too surprising, right? But it has a stamp on it for 0.95 Euros and a postmark of Nederland. Thank you so much for the card draconisregina and dutch_ditch. This is the first foreign Christmas card I have ever received.
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touched | |
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You know, it's really funny--with regards to this movie, the people who call themselves science fiction fans are all dumping on Avatar the way folks outside of SF used to (and still do) dump on SF. No character development, it's silly, stupid aliens, racist, sexist, etc., etc. Christ, isn't that exactly what the Old Guard wants? But what does the New Guard want? Nick Mamatas gets to snipe at the actors, deliver a sideswipe shitbomb on Sigourney Weaver, and roll pigfuck eyes at Michelle Rodriguez. "Much has been made of Avatar's stunning visual sense, generally from people who never flipped through an issue of Heavy Metal in their lives." I've been doing plenty of that, thanks, and yes, I do remember back when Spencer's had their black light backroom, but this movie was still way freaking cool. I think the New Guard has forgotten a few things. Isn't way freaking cool stuff what SF is supposed to be about? Whether it posits and/or explores scientific ideas, or bestows massive eyekicks, isn't that what science fiction is required to do? Avatar falls short in some areas. But with regards to the goal of SF and Fantasy, which is building a dense, multi-layered secondary world, it delivers. (I've met Nick. I like him in person, as far as it goes. But his online persona makes me want to pull age rank on him.)
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 grumpy | |
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17% left of the novel to do.
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 working | |
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Spent the entire day crawling about my attic pulling out garbage, cleaning the decking, rerouting dangerously placed cables, flaging problem electrical connections (every celing fixture in the house which is only five but still...) rewiring and actually mounting the dryer outlet. (it was hanging by a string. Of course.) Insulating the pipes that feed to and from our hot water heater (yep, it's in the attic) while I was doing that I was trying to figure out if I could re-position our furnace
so I could run the ducting more effectively, and I couldn't find the gas line. This left me scratching my head for a bit till I realized that our furnace runs on hot water. I've never seen this set up before in my life but it seems to work pretty well. There is a radiator in the furnace fed by the hot water heater with a return on the cold side. When the furnace kicks on a pump circulates hot water through the radiator and that heats the house. It also explains why they had the hot water set so high that you could just about boil pasta from the tap. Thing is that the feed lines and water heater were uninsulated and as they are in the attic space they were dumping lots of heat into the attic which is stupid wasteful. The ductwork is also a crying shame that I'll redo completly asap. Anyway, attic rehab day one is over. I'll probably spend at least another day or two up there. : ( But the house will be much more comfortable when I'm done. It needs to have all the insulation replaced, but we won't be here long enough to recoup the cost and it doesn't benifit the land people to pay for it since the tenants pay the utilities so it will never get done. : ( Check this band out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lw1fBqe1IVc&feature=youtube_gdata TTFN, -Justus Posted via LiveJournal.app. |
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At least that was the plan. Chicken is hard though. I had 1.5 boneless breasts of chicken. I carefully cut it into chunks. I did not cut myself, which I considered a good start. Then I could not tell when it was done. It is much harder to move around the pan than hamburger is. I finally added the taco seasonings and water. This did not go very well as it does not work like hamburger in water does either. I put the shells in the microwave to warm them and burned one black and the others extra crispy. So I decided that I would just mix the crushed shells, chicken, and cheese together. It was not awful. But chicken is hard. Now I get to clean that pan...
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 complacent | |
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Busy day today. Started by putting in about 90 minutes of work on a couple of servers at QNI. These happen to be the two servers I installed when I was at TriLutions. In 2003. These are quite old in computer terms and the hard drives have been running constantly for more than six years. They are starting to die and replacements are hard to find. I started a rebuild and then went on to the rest of my day. I went to Macomb and gave Sean his new to him used MacBook for Christmas. sgtgwn and I decided to give it to him early so that I could transfer all his information on to it. They are flying to Texas on Christmas Day and he is going to be travelling all over on Christmas Eve. I work Christmas Eve, so this was the best plan. He seemed very pleased with it. We went out and got the Christmas presents for his cousins today. I am now almost done shopping now. We then went back and got his system all setup including installing Windows on it. He can now play Mac and Windows games. Just what he needs. We then had some pizza and I headed back to Quincy about 7:30. Another hour with the servers and a pair of other calls from users and it was nearly 11pm. Talked to ldybz3 a bit after that. Chatted on line and caught football highlights. Now I just have to organize my cracker box apartment ready to hold four people for one night.
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 busy |
Current Music: |
The Boston Camerata: Reading (O moder mayde) | |
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Brianna Lacey, 15, is missing. She is also known to go by the name of Brianna Wright. She was last seen Friday, December 18, 2009 leaving for school from her home in the vicinity of 80th Street and Eberhart and heading to Longwood Academy located at 95th Street and Throop, according to the Chicago Police Department.  Brianna is described as a African-American, 5 ft. 4 inches tall, weighing 110 lbs., with brown hair, brown eyes, and a fair complexion. She also has pierced ears. She was last seen wearing a navy blue polo shirt, navy blue sweater, gray pants, and a brown coat. She had on black gym shoes, as well. According to police, she frequents the area near her home, as well as the area near 105th Street and Yates in Chicago, Illinois. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact Chicago Police Area Two Detective Division Special Victims Unit at (312) 747-8274. Please note, If you are an adult and allowing a minor child to stay at your residence, without parental consent, you are breaking the law and can be prosecuted.
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 tired | |
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mischievous