someone is learning the colours of all of your moods//ten good things

[kaberett]

0. PHILAE. xkcd on the topic is fantastic. As we approached landing o'clock, the rest of the kids in my pod gathered around the person with the most monitors (three goodness knows why) and we watched the live coverage en masse, on the grounds that anyone who didn't want to know about SPACE ROBOT LANDING should probably not be on an open-plan floor full of geology PhD students. I have done some small cries - my feelings about space robots are v similar to my feelings about life boats. Quoth my supervisor, on the topic of the live coverage, "This is like some messed-up space version of Eurovision - there's that lady who came on stage and was all 'and now, Germany...'". :D

1. We have changed ISP; the switchover will happen on the 24th, at which point I might have a more reliable internet connection at home (as of this morning still no connectivity, nor has there been for a week).

2. I am listening to Hymn of Acxiom on loop, partly because of something recessional said and partly Just Because; I am currently comparing-and-contrasting with Collecting You by the Indigo Girls.

3. Last night I made mattar paneer for the first time; some things I would change, but fundamentally a plausible thing (I was genuinely baffled by the oddly specific quantities in many recipes I found - 6-7 cashew nuts? really???) that I can make again in future.

4. Also pear-and-cinnamon-and-hazelnut brownie! Much as previously discussed, only this time I stuck in a good teaspoon of ground cinnamon, coarsely diced two slightly underripe pears to have small lumps, didn't add any extra sugar, and replaced 100g of the flour with roasted hazelnut meal. Friend-whose-face-I-get-to-put-my-face-on approved.

5. ... friend-whose-face-I-get-to-put-my-face-on. During yesterday's conversation I realised to my horror that in much the same sense that vocal conversations can suffer from miscommunications arising from ambiguous or incorrect bracketing, the ways I communicate involve meaningful whitespace. (This is clearly not unique to me, but I was briefly very distressed that spoken interactions involve meaningful whitespace, because it was the thing that scared me off python for years. :-p)

6. FWFIGTPMFO fixed the lights in the kitchen -- I had replacement bulbs, but I'd had about five people (including myself) look at the wretched light fittings and be completely baffled as to how to extricate them; this is something we have been trying and failing to fix since we moved in at the beginning of January.

7. sebastienne enthusiastically livetexting me reactions to Orphan Black and Elementary because I can't do my normal watch-along wossname over IM given hometernot <3

8. ahhhhhhhhhhh part one of pre-Ancillary-Justice short story available!!!

9. Some science progress today in lab! And uh mostly lab-progress because I've spent the rest of the day going AAAAAAAAAAAAH SPACE ROBOTS and grinning ridiculously (rather than making algebra bend to my will) BUT more of that will occur tomorrow... and in fact this evening if I want to hit milestone goals from supervisor >_>

10. Osteopath yesterday morning positive. She was competent at going "... you want to be seeing an NHS hypermobility clinic, not me" and is telling the GP who referred to me so; she agrees that I obviously have hypermobility syndrome; and is impressed by my feet + ankles being basically fine given what my knees and elbows and hips are like. Have been given some hypermobility-focussed physio (practising balancing on one leg; do for both sides, 3x45s per leg per day, shut eyes if I can manage it, one finger only on supportive surface for balance; if doesn't cause problems, move up to balancing on ball of foot instead of foot flat to ground).


Tomorrow I have follow-up on the depression-related bloods, and tomorrow evening I have counselling...

Comments

[alexseanchai]

ooh xkcd.

brownie sounds noms.

yay fixed lights!

(if you have a minute, could you poke at this post? I am curious your opinion. also I emailed you a storybit. these are not as urgent as my impatientbrain thinks they are, I swear.)

[kaberett]

(alas current total lack of hometernet and quite a lot of work means that having energy to usefully brain reading-that-requires-a-net-connection is pretty low <3 but it is ON MY LIST for when I have some!)

[alexseanchai]

Understood. Thank you! (though actually there is a 'zine' tag with multiple posts on it now)

[sfred]

I hope hypermobility clinic is useful when you get referred to it. I found it so, partly because of confirmation of diagnosis; partly because the hypermobility people at UCLH refer to the hospital's own physiotherapists, who can then treat one indefinitely rather than silly six-sessions-only thing.

[kaberett]

I am pretty sure I can swing a referral to UCLH and I am pretty certain you're the one who first suggested it, so thank you :-)

[sfred]

You're very welcome :-)

[davidgillon]

I realised to my horror that ... the ways I communicate involve meaningful whitespace.

Aiieeee! Anathema! Get thee behind me meaningful whitespace! Okay, not Kab-comms, obviously, but I spent my career writing Pascal and Jovial and Ada, and meaningful whitespace was unambiguously a-bad-thing (okay, there may have been those one or two occasions when people realised I knew Fortran and dragged me back to its evil ways, but I repented afterwards and underwent the ritual cleansing in modular language). Seriously, it makes sense in the spoken word, but I remain to be convinced in programming.

you want to be seeing an NHS hypermobility clinic, not me

She does know they're rarer than hen's teeth? Was somewhat impressed by another bendy friend FBing yesterday that RNOH Stanmore are trying her out with "dynamic movement orthoses" (aka lycra socks) to try and stabilise her ankles.

"Get the to a Nonery"

[hairyears]

Meaningful whitespace?

We have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge at the behest of the serpent Python: and we are slaves or Indented Servants.


Also: I'll see your Fortran 77 and raise you Cobol. There are reasons I tolerate the gilded life of an Excel developer.

Re: "Get the to a Nonery"

[davidgillon]

we are slaves or Indented Servants.

Groan!

If meaningful_whitespace = the_future Then we_are_doomed Else we_are_saved;

Servicing the Public Sector Boa-ing Requirement

[hairyears]

Python. An O-O paradigm we refer to as the Class Constrictor.

Re: Servicing the Public Sector Boa-ing Requirement

[davidgillon]

If we're getting Python-esque, does one ever expect the ISO 9001 Inquisition?

[kaberett]

There's a really good one at UCL's hospital!

[davidgillon]

Yeah, I suppose you are convenient for that ;)

Though it's what, four clinics for the entire country? (UCL, Stanmore - which wasn't taking new referrals last I heard, Leeds and Edinburgh, and the last two are a bit basic).

[(Anonymous)]

I heard from a physio that Dr Bird (Leeds) retired and they weren't replacing him and thus the Leeds clinic no longer exists, that info is 3 years old, so it could have been rescued. I also thought the other was Glasgow not Edinburgh. Some places do have designated and reasonably competent physios and the ability to refer to specific people, sadly Cambridge isn't on of those places.

[davidgillon]

You may well be right on both points. I've a bendy friend in Scotland who I know attends the clinic up there, but I'm not actually sure which city it's in.

[swaldman]

"my feelings about space robots are v similar to my feelings about life boats"

...... OK, I can't not ask...

Also, mmm, Vienna Teng. As you probably know I have so much admiration for the woman, and love for her music.

[kaberett]

BRAVE LITTLE MACHINERY DOING SCARY CHALLENGING THINGS UNDER EXTREMELY DIFFICULT CONDITIONS AREN'T YOU GOOD <333

Like, I burst into spontaneous tears about ten seconds into thinking about either; the RNLI exhibit at the Royal Maritime Museum Falmouth ends up with me crying gently onto the nose of the retired rescue helicopter and telling it what a good bird it is every single time. The museum staff are... beginning to get used to me.

such a good brave machine <333

[swaldman]

Ah. That makes sense!

The Stromness lifeboat is getting a new pontoon as a Christmas present. She's on temporary moorings at present while it's installed...

[davidgillon]

Oh I <3 this. The one thing guaranteed to get me 'not crying, there's something in my eye, dammit' is self-sacrifice. Not extended it to anthropomorphizing machinery yet, but I can see how you would.

[vass]

Aw fuck, now I'm crying too. ;__;

[fyreharper]

alsksjd Hymn of Acxiom is gorgeous and sweetly creepy (and I was then sad to find that the rest of the album is quite dissimilar to this one track, musically, but still!)

[kaberett]

isn't it amaaaaaaaazing also yeah she has a hugely varied musical style and I really need to get my hands on her earlier albums and see what I think

[swaldman]

The earlier albums are *very* different to Aims. Generally much more chilled-out and contemplative, though that isn't universally a good description.
I like them at least as much, but I'm not sure that everybody would.

Incidentally, this made me open my music player and search for Vienna, and that produced: (a) 3 Vienna Teng albums; and (b) Ultravox.....

[fyreharper]

Yes it iiiiisssss - I did not realize it was possible to write about invasive-data-collection-tracking-profiling in a away that is beautiful to me AND YET.

And then I flung the link at basically all my close chosenfamily, and got back from one of them 'yeah, I should get more of her music, there's a bunch of my friends who go to her December concert every year' SO APPARENTLY SHE IS LOCAL (or at least from-here, not sure if still-here), which is not a thing I tend to expect in music recs from halfway across the world? So then I was Amused.

(But I suppose that one concert I'm eyeing for next month is ALSO people from here despite my knowing about them from K-in-Germany seeing them recently, SO. Maybe I should not be making assumptions about geography when there are so many artists I haven't heard of :p )

[vass]

Semantic whitespace: SCARY.

And yet hard to avoid.

Space robot Eurovision would be the BEST EUROVISION. One day all Eurovision will be held in space and performed by robots.

Actually, Pacific Rim should involve Jaeger Eurovision.

Good luck with bendy person physio exercises. (I was meant to see my bendiness-aware physio yesterday, but scheduling fuckup happened and now I don't see her until December.)

[calissa]

Gah, instant earworm! Well, since it is Vienna Teng I can't say I mind all that much.

That brownie sounds pretty awesome. My sweetheart and I are having a rare date night tonight and are off to our favourite Indian restaurant. Food is good.

It's wonderful to hear you have a supportive osteopath. In fact, it is wonderful to hear all these wonderful things <3