Why not?

[sabotabby]

Ask me things. Tell me things. Let's have some good old-fashioned LJ discussions.

Comments

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

I nearly said something that's Way TMI.

So, in unrelated news, tonight I went to a combo concert / lecture on the neurological bases of enjoyment of music. It was oddly cool.

And what are you up to?

[sabotabby]

Well, it is an unlocked post. :) I can make a locked one for TMI things.

That sounds like an awesome lecture. Yesterday, one of my kids asked if I just listened to music or was interested in good composition and songwriting. It was a curious thing for a kid to ask, and made me interested enough to check out the bands she recommended.

Tonight, I have a rare not-much-to-do. I have made myself some noodles and eaten them while watching the finale of Happy Valley. Downloaded some cool music (Murder Murder's first album, which I didn't know about and wasn't on iTunes but was PWYC on their site, and the two albums by Glorious Din, which I gladly would have paid for if they were available legally.) I'm listening to the latter. It's so good. It's so mindblowingly good.

I'm about to call it a night and read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, which is amazing so far and I think you would love it.

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

You are at least the second, and possibly the third, person to recommend that book to me. I may need to check it out.

Book and books

[goodliver.livejournal.com]

I am glad to know you like this book. It keeps showing up on my "recommended for you" lists, so I should get around to it sometime. Your Books Read 2016 list is three times as long as mine would be at this point in the year. By the way, your reviews are very useful and interesting because we seem to have similar tastes. Also, you are funny and comment on issues that are important.

[mle292.livejournal.com]

An asking thing: What motivated you to go into teaching?

A telling thing: I have a collection of Ingress Keys from places I've visited. It is a very non-space-consuming collection.

[khalinche.livejournal.com]

Hee, I used to have a collection of keys like that. I mean, I probably still do but I haven't played Ingress in a long time. I did get rid of a load of them to make room for local keys, which must have been a bit baffling to the people who found them.

[sabotabby]

I usually recycle my keys, because my area would be Smurf were it not for me and I don't need to help them out any more, but I scattered all my Swedish keys around just to confuse everyone.

[ironed_orchid]

Some of my local faction members occasionally dump random keys for the purpose of fucking with the oppositions heads.

[sabotabby]

I should say "the joy and love of helping children along their educational journey," but it wasn't that at all. It was a combination of factors: Dissatisfaction with working in publishing, the death of my grandmother (leaving me enough money to go back to school and not be in horrible debt), a then-boyfriend who was a teacher and told me of a pathway to get in that I hadn't heard of, and yes, a desire to do something more meaningful than editing auto guides and government reports.

It was going to be teaching or grad school, and while I felt grad school would be more intellectually fulfilling, I am a pragmatic person and had a look at the job market and noped right out of there.

Also, while I really hated grade school, I'm one of those rare people who enjoyed high school, which is something I put down to no small degree to really amazing teachers.

I was keeping my non-Toronto Ingress keys for awhile, but I had to lose them to make room.

Happy Valley follow-up, weird dream

[ed-rex.livejournal.com]

On Happy Valley, fer chrissake, what did you think of it? First series or second? Are you going to start tracking down everything by Sally Wainwright? Did you notice that Sarah Lancashire was the villain in "Partners In Crime" back in 2008?

On the second, I had a long and convoluted dream about you this morning. Or rather, about you and your gaggle of mostly (if not entirely) male hangers' on, one of whom decided he really, really didn't like me and tried to subtly cause a split twixt you and I.

I thought he had succeeded and so, for dream-logic reasons, then found myself in your apartment, where I prepared to take a shower while you prepared to give birth. (Baby not mine; we were dream buds, not dream lovers.)

I proceeded to shower as your hangers' on came into the kitchen (where I was showering), you told the guy who hated me he was being an ass and eventually I found a towel and got dressed.

I dunno what happened to the new-born, but I presume it was fine since no one was freaking out.

So, er, congratulations!

RE: Happy Valley follow-up, weird dream

[sabotabby]

Whaaaat? Me having a baby? That's a terrible nightmare. Though I giggle at my dream harem.

I loved Happy Valley; thanks for the rec. I binged both seasons in like a week. Wainwright's other stuff, I'm not sure; it sounded less dark and gritty.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

I may have to kill the co-workers responsible for plugging the sink. Everyone should know to not put food in the drain, and yet there are noodles and whole pepper corns. Urge to kill: rising.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

If I end up on your jury I'll vote to acquit.

[sabotabby]

WHY DO PEOPLE DO THAT?

I imagine that you have a garbage somewhere. Maybe an organics?

[princealberic.livejournal.com]

My life is not treating me well atm so let's talk about you! I have no idea what I'd like to ask but idk, tell me something about hobbies or fun things or weird and obscure subjects that you've been reading about.

Also, I've been reading The Magicians! I finished the first book, I'm not sure that I'll read the second soon because I'm emotionally exhausted but I loved it. I think I'll watch the TV show next, and it's all thanks to your influence. :D

[sabotabby]

I'm sorry that things are going badly. I'm here if you wanna talk.

Okay, so I'm planning some new articles for Atlas Obscura. Articles I'm going to propose: The Toronto clowns-vs-firefighters riot, the Christie Pitts riot, the Black Donnellys and the guy who now lives in their homestead where the massacre happened, and the guy who lives in a house that is covered with pool cues and rubber animals. I have not gotten my shit together to write any of these proposals yet, and I need to contact the Donnellys guy and arrange how to drive out to Lucan. Which is my favourite small Southern Ontario shitty town, not that I've been to too many.

Glad you loved The Magicians! If it is any kind of encouragement, the second one has a talking sloth named Abigail in it. It also has a scene that makes lots of people throw the book against the wall, though, so hold off maybe until you're less emotionally exhausted.

[ironed_orchid]

YES!!!!

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

A statement: I am obsessed with the Droste Effect, aka recursive images, right now. I don't know why, i just find them fascinating.

A question: please talk to me about galaxy patterns. I really love them and want to find more applications thereof in my life.

[sabotabby]

Recursive images are cool and you've been doing cool things with them.

Okay, galaxy patterns! Not just for your phone's wallpaper and your clothing, although of course that is good too. Things that can be galaxy patterns: food (I made cupcakes. Warning: they make your poo green), duct tape, paintings, your hair, possibly your walls even. If I'm in a bad mood, it's about staring into the Void. If I'm in a good mood, it's about how space is awesome.

Today while I was writing a very happy "SOLD" on my space octopus painting, a woman in the coffee shop said that she loved it. I was like, "hee hee, it's been sold, but don't worry, I'm going to paint MOAR SPACE. ALL THE SPACE."

Galaxy patterns are great is what I'm saying.

[elsewhereangel.livejournal.com]

This week has been unremittingly, low-grade awful. Each day is a countdown until the end of the day. Much of it is my fault as I've been unusually error-prone.

Tell me about your plans for summer (or you know, world domination, whatever you'd like).

[sabotabby]

I had a bunch of crises at work too. My sympathies to you.

My plans for world domination are:

1. Blog a lot about political issues that piss me off, and volunteer and go to demos and such.
2. ...
3. FULLY AUTOMATED LUXURY SPACE YACHT COMMUNISM!

Okay, maybe this needs a bit of work.

My plans for the summer are hella bourgeois, I have to say. I'm getting my bathroom reno'd. I'm kinda excited about that except for the bit where I have to live without a bath or shower for two weeks. It's modelled after my favourite pub.

Otherwise, I'm seeing a lot of plays! And hopefully going to a Weird West LARP in Pennsylvania. Oh, and mainly I'm writing the gaming course, because that needs to be done.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

I appear to be still somewhat jet-lagged, at least judging by my sleeping patterns. But my brain is being relatively quiet.

OMG have you seen the latest Orphan Black? If not you should watch soon!

Also on the theme of Orphan Black, if the Clone Club were to be a revolutionary council that led the successful Revolution in Canada, what would each of their roles be? (You can include e.g. Felix and S. in the council if you want).

[sabotabby]

Yay for Quiet!Brain!

I haven't, no. Won't until Wednesday. FML. I heard it was amazing.

Okay, revolutionary council. Hmm. Okay.

Sarah: Comrade Chairwoman.
Helena: No official role, but does the things that the government can't be seen doing.
Alison: Minister of Education and Re-Education.
Cosima: Minister of Health.
Siobhan: Homeland Defence.
Felix: Foreign Minister.
Donnie: Minister of Revolutionary Justice, for when four walls are three too many.
Scotty: Minister of Mad Science. (I had trouble deciding between him and Cosima for this, but I figure Cosima's specialty is more biology and Scotty does all the other science.)
Ferdinand: Sekrit Police. Super sekrit. Does a great job of being sekrit.

[ironed_orchid]

Lets talk bathroom renovations!

I have about 1/3 of the money I need to do mine the way I want it, and I guess I can probably save the rest in about a year... but I also kinda want to go to Worldcon in Helsinki in about a year... so it's a good thing I have this job with paid leave etc.

I am also contemplating a mini clawfoot bathtub, because they are SO CUTE and because they actually make the room look bigger than a tiled in bath. My current plan involves putting the bath/shower where the vanity currently is, putting a new vanity where the shower currently is, and putting a new toilet where the old toilet is, because pipes.

Here are some very rough sketches I made in paint

Current set up:


Plan:


As you can see, if I switch the way the door opens, I can get more bathtub. This is desirable.

I am also absolutely smitten with these green tiles, but they are fancy and expensive. However might be possible to use one row of them as a border above plain white.

Argh. So many wants.

Edit to add: More wants: white and green floor tiles.

[sabotabby]

I probably would have put off the reno another year (even though the reason for the reno was primarily structural and needed to be done, so might as well do the aesthetic while I'm already paying all the money), had I known that a friend of mine was going to get married in Turkey. No travelling for me for awhile. Though the weird thing is that while it's a boatload of money, one of my co-workers spent just as much renovating her slightly smaller washroom in a condo in a style that neither I nor she particularly like. It helps that my fancy taste runs more to industrial than, say, Italian marble, and I was pleased to discover the chrome is the least expensive finish.

Your plan looks very sensible, and like it will open up a lot of the room.

My reasoning for the clawfoot tub is that I've always wanted a clawfoot tub. I once rented an apartment in a neighbourhood I hated just because it had a clawfoot tub (and black and white tiles). I was pretty much resigned to not ever getting to have one in my bathroom but then the contractor was like, "oh, no, I'm pretty sure they make them small enough." It is the most expensive thing that is going in my bathroom but it will make me tremendously happy, and I take two baths a day most of the time, so it's a solid investment.

Both of those tiles are amazing and would go great together. I think the fancy ones might work better as an accent; I'm guessing your bathroom is also tiny, and like everyone's mom said when we wanted to paint our bedrooms black, it will make the room look smaller. (Which, incidentally, is one of two reasons my bathroom will not be black, the other being that hard water stains show up a gazillion times more on dark colours.)

I went with black and white because this is only happening once, and I can just keep swapping the accent colours on the shower curtain and tiles. It's weird because everything in my house is really colourful, but I think it'll work.