I had a routine mammogram in November. Late in the month I got a letter saying there was an anomaly and they really wanted me to come in and let them do another one. So today I trundled in, they took more pictures, and I these were clean, clean, clean. I've been through this once before, and while I didn't really think there was anything to worry about...well, there's always the possibility. Just another fabulous stressor to add to the Festive Holiday Season.

My hair, after being French braided for two days.

Photograph © 2009 Shannon Page, used with permission.

Why don't you post more photos of your hamsters, Bug?

( Also featuring: Bug's First YouTube Video!! )

You say you're a Steampunk. You know what you really, really need? A motorcycle. A motorcycle that looks like it could've been put together with parts lying around Babbage's workshop.

And, hey, it worked for T.E. Lawrence, Duane Allman, and Pete Conrad.

(Here's the manufacturer's own site.)

And so Chanukah draws to a close. One last night of candles, one last day of yummy foods. I was going to post Neil Diamond's version of The Chanukah Song, but given today and tomorrow's other significance, I find that I can't bring myself to post an embedded video, only a link.

Today, tonight, tomorrow are bittersweet for me. Not only is it Chanukah, but it's Shabbat and also, my mother's yahrzeit begins tonight. Because she died on December 28, 1981, her yahrzeit always falls this time of year.

( Let me tell you a little about her, with some old pix )

the implants are finished! i went to the dentist today and he cemented in the replacement numbers 19 and 20. it is awesome to have occlusion again! i am going to have to re-learn how to chew on the left side.

thank you for your support through this torturous process. two implants to go.

Originally published at fritz freiheit.com blog. You can comment here or there.

Link dump for Fri. 2009/12/18 after the cut. The wiki version includes a tag cloud.

Read the rest of this entry »

Best comment I've seen on the present state of the debate about health care reform (quoted on Ta-Nehisi Coates' blog):

Marge: I think Bart and Lisa are feeling a little upset right now. Isn't there something you'd like to say?

Homer: There sure is. Kids, you tried your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

This is amazingly cool, except it's in Quicktime. There are stills here to. Check out NOAA's site from yesterday, Dec. 17.

...Publisher's Weekly is spotlighting my ice-cream-0serving talents. http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6712115.html?nid=2788&source=title&rid=16800567

"These are the rules you shall lay before them. When you purchase a Hebrew slave, he is to serve you for six years, but in the seventh year he shall be given his freedom without cost. If he comes into service alone, he shall leave alone; if he comes with a wife, his wife shall leave with him. But if his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall remain the master's property and the man shall leave alone. If, however, the slave declares, 'I am devoted to my master and my wife and children; I will not go free,' his master shall bring him to God and there, at the door or doorpost, he shall pierce his ear with an awl, thus keeping him as his slave forever.

"When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go free as male slaves do. But if her master, who had destined her for himself, dislikes her, he shall let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreigner, since he has broken faith with her. If he destines her for his son, he shall treat her like a daughter. If he takes another wife, he shall not withhold her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights. If he does not grant her these three things, she shall be given her freedom absolutely, without cost to her."
(Exodus 21:1-11, New American Bible)

Biography: A Very Short Introduction – Hermione Lee
(Oxford: OUP, 2009)

There is, I think, an idea that biography is an impartial, objective presentation of facts about a person, as though the writer has had full access to everything about a person that has ever existed. This is far from any kind of reality so far as biographical or life writing is concerned. As the dust flap on this VSI points out, biography 'is by no means a fixed or stable form of literature. Biography has gone through many centuries of change and exists in many different versions.' Having said that, when I was young I never really gave it a thought, happily devouring biographies and assuming I had some grip on the person as a result. I continued in this vein until Iain Hamilton wrote about the difficulties of trying to write a biography of J.D. Salinger, famously private, who refused Hamilton access and cooperation, and most importantly, the right to quote from his works. Peter Ackroyd suffered similarly in trying to write a biography of T.S. Eliot, but managed to circumvent the quotation restrictions imposed by the Eliot estate through some ingenious and very stylish paraphrasing. Instances like this remind us that writing a biography is not a right; by the same token, writing an authorised biography is not the easy ride it might seem to be. Beyond that, authors write biographies because they want to explore a theory, because they have an axe to grind, because they think a previous biographer got it wrong, or because new information has come to light, or because a new generation may see a person's actions in an entirely different light. And so it goes on.

Lee's Biography raises these and other issues involved in the writing of biography in what is, in my view, an extremely neat and informative introduction to the study and writing of biography.

Out of 5

****

63/50 bookss. 126% done!

5 stupid ways to respond to reviews

Thanx to james_nicoll

am i out of cousins yet? still need to tweak some stuff on this one...

sorry for lack of posts lately, been really busy with the new job. but i got some interesting projects down the pipeline over the next month. peace and happy holidays yall

Holy crap! They've been predicting a snowstorm for a few days now, but now the NWS prediction is for 10 to 20 inches of snow. In Maryland. Starting tonight.

The city is going to completely and utterly grind to a halt. Baltimore is not at all capable of dealing with a snowstorm like that.

I fear for my Christmas pageant! There's no way that the kids are going to make it to church Sunday morning.

Also, we have now slipped from "good luck trying to get anyone at work to get anything done early next week" to "there isn't a chance in hell that anyone at work is going to even be there to get anything done early next week."

At least I have finished my Christmas shopping and gotten packages into the mail, and we have food in the refrigerator. And Alex is going to be in seventh freaking heaven. The past two years have only ever seen a dusting of winter snow in Baltimore. Four years old and almost two feet of snow at Christmas!

woke up with migraine
Maxalt comes to save the day!
but drat, it's returned.

Well, we really want to go to this:

A MidWinter Night's Steam
Saturday, January 9, 2010. 8pm-12midnight. Join the Danse Macabre as the 8 Great Families Calosia present the Steampunk Grand Masquerade and Ball. Mystery and mayhem combine with the sounds of FERMATA, Madison's premier steampunk band, ASHAR, the fiery tribal fusion belly dance troupe, and the magic and mystery of Baroness Naomi Flemming, Tarot Reader and Psychic, The Countess, Gypsy Queen of the Zagani, and the renown Madame Blavatsky, medium extraordinaire. Also featured: the Steampunk Artists exhibition and auction at 10pm 12.50 at the door, (11.00 in steampunk attire). Goodman Community Center, Old Ironworks and Foundary, 149 Waubesa Street, Madison, Dane County.

FERMATA is good, and we know the Ashar ladies, and it sounds like a hoot. But of course we really really want to dress up.

It's three weeks from tomorrow!!!

I seriously, and I mean SERIOUSLY, do not have time to sew between now and then. I have more than a dozen veils to dye in that time period! So as much as I might like to throw caution to the winds and enter a marathon session, it will NOT be happening.

Sadly, we have no pieces we can really repurpose. The goofy mad scientist coats we did won't do for this event, we need something dressier and steamier. I have a skirt that might fit into something... B has his metal-plated boots and a possible hat, should he wish to go Western-steampunk, but that's about it.

Gaah!

Melina is such a wonderfully gentle and loving Mommy Doodle. Though she is my biggest Mommy Doodle and I have to watch that she doesn’t accidently lay down on her little babies, though these are big little babies! All but two of them are over a pound already!