(no subject)

[kaberett]

So how are you all spending your (lovely sunny) weekends?

I'm sat in the basement trying to coax another 200V ppm^-1 out of my very expensive vacuum leak...

Comments

[mair_in_grenderich]

It's windy on the Isles of Scilly, and I'm trying to come up with 750 words on the relationships AutorInnen mit Migrationshintergrund have with the deutschen Sprache und damit auch zu Deutschland (the question doesn't mention other deutschsprachigen Länder - though perhaps it should...)

(Or at least, I'm, er, doing some background reading).

[kaberett]

Oooh, Scilly. *chinhands* Miss that place!

And the essay sounds proper interesting. Would be interested in reading at some point if you're up for that :-)

[mair_in_grenderich]

I'll get back to you when I've got some of the sentences finished as well as started ;-).

[mair_in_grenderich]

huh, i said i'd get back here, & i finished & submitted the thing, eventually. by the time i had pushed it into wordcounts and citations and attempts at academic german and the things my tutor hinted she expected to see in it, i don't think it's very interesting any more. plus my german is probably not just peppered with mistakes but also horrible (and I hate word limits).

um, but i referenced this http://kaberett.dreamwidth.org/191777.html (and got a bit stumped contemplating german pronoun options).

i'm probably not allowed to publish the assignment, in case a future student steals it or something. but I have this dreamwidth account that I created with all intention of practising writing languages and which has been mouldering for months... so, well, if you want: http://mairs-book-reviews.dreamwidth.org/8618.html

(but definitely you are not expected/obliged to read, or consider anything but dull/horrible).

[littlebutfierce]

I'm trying not to obsessively google rosacea/eczema & think about something else for a while, ahaha. -____- But uh having a yoga class this morning helped distract for a while.

[kaberett]

Haaaaaaa. I am very glad yoga helped distract; have been reading; keep thinking that I still have your umbrella and should meet up with you to give it back!

I am a native speaker in the loosest possible sense and my German grammar is awful, but chatting in German is also a thing I can do if that helps with planning-stuff?

[sylvaine]

I too am sitting in a basement, avoiding my homework by all sorts of clever methods (playing flute - which I haven't in over a year, answering comments that've been sitting in my inbox for over a month, reading hockey fic - which for almost two years I was convinced I'd never get into...).

(icon twins!)

[kaberett]

oooooh flute. I have not thus far procrastinated by playing the horn but I probably should because Der Lip Is Stiff. >>

I am also interestingly failing to procrastinate with fic, and having only marginal success procrastinating with reading actual books (I turn out to not be getting on brilliantly with The Alchemist because EVERYONE IS DUDES). Must Try Harder!

(heeeeeeee icons!)

[cosmolinguist]

I got my parents from the airport this morning, and took them to my in-laws', where they're having a housewarming/Meet the Americans barbecue, and my mom's extroversion is starting to combine in worrying ways with her attempts to keep up with how much Andrew's family drinks, which is a lot more than she drinks usually.

[kaberett]

I hope it is going as minimally stressfully as possible! And also OH DEAR ALCOHOL.

You are nice. Good luck. I am thinking of you.

[cosmolinguist]

Because Andrew's family do drink more, I think they're a little more used to people getting emotional/overshare-y/etc, so they're all fine about it and think my parents are awesome. I find some of the things my mom is saying absolutely cringeworthy (because emotional and overshare-y is pretty much the opposite of how I was brought up!) but I guess I'm the only one stressed by it so that's all right.

My parents always have a good time when they're here, and it never occurs to them that I might not be having a good time, and these two things constitute the sole measure of my success for their visits, so as far as I'm concerned it's still going as well as it can.

[alexseanchai]

awesomeers-a-longing my epic do_it list, of which you see the abbreviated form in the bottom half of my tada list on my own journal.

Also, I have been longing for a walk since one-thirty this morning. It is now nine-thirty and a lovely 70F-ish out so I believe I shall transfer the last thing I need to do for NMC class this week (bar the discussion post and the short paper--this thing is a 25min mp3 interview) to my Kindle Fire and take it out for walkies. Must put on day clothes first though...

[kaberett]

I have not awesomeered my epic to-do list but I DID manage to put the beginnings of a work-related one together on the coach back from Oxford last night! Which was good. I am not the brain for 20-10s at the moment which is a sadness; I should try again soon. :-(

HURRAH FOR NEARLY FINISHED

how did walk go? xx

[alexseanchai]

Walk was lovely! mp3 was educational, though I am sad there is not a transcript. I don't like having to re-listen to things, I don't mind rereading things, and I want to cite this interview in my short paper (which is, uh, not yet started, but I've got all today). According to the interviewee, the things that drive or--what's the verb the other thing--technological innovation are relative advantage (will this improve one's life in any way? if so, likely to go for it, if not, likely to reject it), compatibility (both Windows-v-Mac-v-Linux sort of thing and with one's life in general), complexity (early adopters tend to like complexity, later adopters tend to be turned off by complexity), trialability (apparently Paul McCartney was the last of the Beatles to try LSD because John Lennon told him that one try would change McCartney's perspective forever, and McCartney didn't like the idea of not being able to go back to how he was pre-LSD), and observability (can others see that one has adopted this? does one want others to see that one has adopted this?). And since my paper is on what technologies have been innovated, adapted, and adopted by this particular industry...

[kaberett]

Inhibit?

[alexseanchai]

That's the word.

[sorrillia]

Well, MITSFS was supposed to have a picnic, but no one (most distressingly, including the person bringing food) seems to have shown up. I get to spend the rest of the weekend in lab, though.

[kaberett]

Alas :-( Basement-solidarity!

[vass]

It's 12:43am on Sunday morning, and I just hit 70K on That Fucking Novel. If someone told me the only way to get a good second draft was to fingerpaint the rest of the first draft in my own feces on the computer monitor, I would think "oh well, that's less awful than what I've written so far."

If I ever finish this draft, I will write a self-help guide for writers, called Feel The Feces And Do It Anyway.

[kaberett]

NOVEL. NOVEL NOVEL NOVEL. YOU ARE NOVELLING LIKE A PRO AND YOU WILL MAKE IT BETTER AND YOU ARE GETTING PLACES. GO YOU. <3

[vass]

THANK YOU. I needed to hear this. ♥

[kaberett]

I mean every word. ♥

(And I am a super-persnickety beta-reader, should that ever come in helpful! Negotiations about how persnickety on a per-author basis.)

[vass]

Ooh. Thank you again. I will bear that in mind when I have something ready for beta.

[pretty_panther]

Self caring after a long week. Tennis on the tv and writing up wee blog posts. :) And um, raising dinosaurs on a Jurassic park game on my tablet. *iz 12* XD

[kaberett]

Well done on the self-care and also on the DINOSAURS.

[jedusaur]

Today I'm cleaning up the house, doing things with phyllo dough and chocolate, watching the Habs-Bruins game, and then having people over for a game night, as Piper hasn't met very many of my puzzling friends. (That is, friends I met through our shared interest in puzzles. I don't think as people they're very much more puzzling than my other friends.) Tomorrow I'm going ice skating, which I've been doing three times a week since I bought my own skates; I'm hoping the rink will be empty enough to work on my backwards speed without crashing into any tiny incompetent figure skaters. The rest of the weekend will likely be spent clipping for the Shameless (US) vid I'm working on, a compilation of heartwarming family moments (e.g. a grandmother teaching her grandson how to cook meth) set to "Teach Your Children." :P

[kaberett]

yaaaaaaaaaay cleaning and cooking! And HURRAH for introducing Piper to people (ffff so looking forward to SEEING YOU THIS SUMMER I HOPE and consequently I hope also MEETING THIS GIRL OF YOURS).

I am really enjoying watching you get (back?) into ice-skating, and am as ever delighted by your fannish activities :D

[jedusaur]

I am also super psyched to see you again! Jesus, has it been three years already? I'd love to introduce you to Pi, and I know she'd love to meet you too, but she's on the other coast from June 22 to July 6, so I don't know if your schedule will allow for that. Do you have an idea of dates yet?

Skating is awesome! I've always loved it but never had easy access to it before, so I haven't had a chance to get very good. But I've improved tremendously this last few weeks, and I've been having so much fun.

[forthwritten]

In work invigilating between 8am and 2:30pm, then hanging out with NUS LGBT conference hacks.

[kaberett]

WAS WATCHING EUROVISION WITH THEM AS FUN AS THE REST OF THE INTERNET MADE IT SOUND

[highlyeccentric]

It's not even sunny here. Warm, cloudy and muggy. I think I got the air pressure headache thing for the first time ever. Also my internet has been down.

BUT. I realised I can make *real cake* using the blender my boss gave me. That was exciting.

[kaberett]

Alas for your lack of sun and for pressure headaches and The Most Frustrating Internet!

REAL CAKE. CAKE CAKE CAKE. I am so excited and grateful about the Kenwood stand mixer Papa gave me last time I visited -- it makes making cake regularly ACTUALLY POSSIBLE for me (otherwise I have to budget it for a time when (1) my arms aren't already bad and (2) I don't mind if I can't use them as much for the next two days).

What manners of cake are on your hitlist?

[highlyeccentric]

I'm perfectly fit and healthy in the arms, aside from very occasional academic-typical RSI, but I just *can't* whip cream or beat butter by hand. Never have been able to. I've been putting off buying a hand-held electric beater set, in case my next abode already has one...

I made bannana cake yesterday, because housemate didn't want to eat bananas that were perfectly reasonable on the inside but black outside. OM NOM NOM BANANA CAKE.

[silverhare]

I'm busy working in the bakery today and for the next four days. Customers are irritating, but we all knew this. I am mostly competent at my job, and that makes me happy.

[kaberett]

:-)

Good luck with customers over the rest of the weekend... and I keep being Massively Envious of people eating Things You Make, heh.

[crazyscot]

Lazily! It's mostly sunny here too, but the house is chilly as I've only just got up and we don't run the heaters overnight. Fiddling with my server config today, and looking forwards to next week when we're making a daily local news programme in class.

[kaberett]

Yes! Congratulations on the news programme -- I am looking forward to your write-up (at least I assume there will be one). Nodnod on house being chilly (and hurrah for having a thermostat on a timer so's I can have the house be warm when I wake up without being warm all night).

[crazyscot]

There will indeed be some sort of write-up; there's one brewing in my head right now about today's rehearsals. You remind me, must keep an eye on how cold the house gets overnight and see about setting some timers. Sadly, we have no central heating; while we do have five decent heat pumps with timers and thermostats, they have to be set separately, and while they're good at heating the air, they don't really heat the fabric of the house.

[beckyc]

Resting! Slept 14 hours straight, then moved as far as the sofa to shop, read and then watch Eurovision.

[kaberett]

HURRAH. Rest is good :-) I am looking forward to spending Wednesday doing that (give or take the amount of it I'll spend cooking, but that kiiiiiiiiiiind of counts -- I reckon that given I'm working Sunday-Tues on the mass spec i.e. long days, then Thurs+Fri is a conference -- European Lunar Science Symposium at the NHM -- I need to take Wednesday off or at least not leaving the house....)

[milkymoon]

Currently finishing up the very last bits of the undergrad degree.

[kaberett]

CONGRATULATIONS.

Someday, Sunday

[hairyears]

Waking up. Tea. Bacon sandwich breakfast.

I will shortly shower, then wash up in preparation for making Sunday Lunch for my beloved.

I will then trundle to Snorbens and walk to Tyttenhanger Green to practice with the St.Albans Aikido club.

I *may* find time to finish reading part III of Bitter Seeds.

Re: Someday, Sunday

[kaberett]

:-) This all sounds lovely, and I am glad of it.

[swaldman]

I spent about half of yesterday getting on top of Discworld Convention stuff. I have spent about half of today working on a big presentation that I have to give on Tuesday. I have spent the other half of each day playing computer games.

Yes, I should have spent more time on the presentation and less on Skyrim.....

[damerell]

Beer and boykissing, which often go together *cough* four-pint bisexual *cough*.