NP-Complete

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:43:16 GMT

I have Part 2 of EoT ready to go, but can't bring myself to watch it quite yet. Maybe it's because my sister is coming over in an hour to pick up Guest Cat, but I'm both eager to start and feeling that it isn't quite the right time.

I'm at skip=100 on my flist: I had parties and houseguests and what-all until 10 this morning, so I'm a long way behind. But it's lovely to contemplate all that commentary, yet to be read.

I'm using the new netbook. It's a fantastic little toy and I love it.

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:13:05 GMT

Guest Cat is here temporarily, shut up in my study. She and Jack are remote-sensing each other from opposite sides of a closed door. Both of them are making sad noises.

Jack and his favorite toy:

Yes, it would be fair to say that I'm besotted.

Question

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:08:40 GMT

I've been unable to figure out if there's a Confidential for EoT Part 2 or when it aired/will air. Does anyone know?

Also, apparently there already was one titled "Allons-y", but it aired before Part 2? Is that right?

Happy 2010!

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 13:23:22 GMT

Happy 2010!

I got hit with a champagne cork last night. Hopefully this is a sign of good luck.

Geeks In Love

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:21:49 GMT

I love this.

ETA: I do love it, but the one I meant to link to was actually this one!

Saw SHERLOCK HOLMES tonight (no spoilers)

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:39:27 GMT

Enjoyed it very much. Others have done much better commentary than I can: I haven't read the stories since I was 14 or 15. I'll just say I liked this Holmes and Watson very much.

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 21:24:59 GMT

I stayed up until 2 talking to my sister (I'm still at my parents') and now every time I lie down (because of my back) I fall asleep!

It's starting to snow.

ETA: I'm home, after a long drive through what turned out to be some intimidating snow. Fortunately it lessened the farther South I went. I opened my refrigerator to put away some Xmas leftovers -- and found S. had left me a chocolate pie! How sweet!

Couldn't resist this picture

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:34:27 GMT

Jack and a knitting sample, this morning:

Holiday baking

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:17:26 GMT

I am embarking on a marathon baking session. I have one non-traditional fruitcake, one lemon-almond cake, and one cranberry-apple-raisin cake to make.

It is beginning to strike me that that's a lot of baking for anyone. A more prudent holiday-preparer would have done these one per night rather than waiting for one vacation day and doing them all at once.

ETA: Fruitcake into oven: 6:06 pm.

ETA: Lemon-almond cake into oven: 7:30 pm.

ETA: Cranberry-apple-raisin cake: realize I don't have enough eggs, give up on idea: 9 pm.

Jack update

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:22:39 GMT

Jack went to the vet today. He seems to be parasite-free, so the vet thought the probable cause of the blood I saw was a food that wasn't quite suited to him. She recommended Iams Digestive Care, so I'll be picking some up tomorrow. She also thought the bump on his nose I was worried about was probably an old scar: it was hard, wasn't inflamed, and didn't seem to be giving him any pain.

Jack behaved beautifully: the vet praised him for his cooperativeness!

Holiday happiness

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:15:14 GMT

I came home today carrying a bag stuffed with new computer parts and a large box of luxury muffins. I came home to my new cat, a clean house, my new netbook (squee!), the prospect of holiday baking with S. tomorrow, and time off until Monday.

I love my life. I gripe a lot, but I love my life.

Happy holidays to everybody!

Oh, dear

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:12:45 GMT

There may be more going on than simple dissatisfaction with the litter box. While cleaning up and attending to the box, I saw traces of blood in his stool.

He has an appointment with the vet on Tuesday morning. Is that soon enough? Should I take him to an emergency clinic?

ETA: I called the emergency clinic, and they said that if he were eating and drinking and acting normally apart from this (which he is, apart from some meowing, which he rarely does) it could probably wait until Tuesday, but if he started getting "worse", then to bring him in. So I'll do that.

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:34:24 GMT

Dear Jack-the-cat,

I still like you, despite the fact that you peed on my laundry.

Sincerely,

NP

Back pain question -- possible TMI

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 02:27:34 GMT

I've been having lower back pain for over a month. It isn't sharp, but more like an ache, a perpetual distraction rather than a disability. It feels a bit like the ache I used to get before my period -- it's in that area of the back, below the waist but just above the hips -- except that it's not correlated with my cycle.

I went to the doctor (not about that specifically, but mentioned it) and she said it was probably musculoskeletal, but didn't give me any recommendations besides heavy doses of ibuprofen and moist heat.

So: has anyone else had experience with something like this? Would exercise help? Can anyone refer me to anything that would? I know there are a lot of self-help back pain materials out there, but since this isn't the acute back pain that drives people to chiropractors and PTs, I've been unsure whether the standard exercises would help.

Object frenzy

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:04:16 GMT

I ordered a netbook a week ago. A good-looking one. With a matching mouse. I wasn't expecting it until the 29th, but then I got an email saying it shipped yesterday, with expected arrival of today!

I tried not to live in suspense, not to think of how much fun it would be to play with this weekend, while waiting for it to arrive (I had it shipped to me at my office) but I couldn't help feeling disappointed when 4 pm passed and it hadn't appeared.

I checked the email: it said "December 18". I followed a link or two. They said "December 18".

I finally followed a link out of the vendor website to the FedEx website. And there, for expected date of arrival, it said ... December 19!

*wails* I won't be there December 19! I'll have to wait until Monday!

News!

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:09:35 GMT

I adopted a cat!

His name is Jack, he's five years old, and he's a light grey tabby with a lightning bolt of white on his nose. He's handsome and playful.

No pictures yet, because we just got home and he's adjusting to the new space.

Quiet night

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:00:39 GMT

We're a quiet lot tonight, aren't we? Or is something going on (like a new show) that I don't know about?

I've been grumpy and morose the past few evenings, but I think I may have beaten that, at least for now, by reading a new chapter of TAW and doing some deep thinking. I think the light box helps, too. I turn it on when I'm writing or knitting. This being December, it's dark outside pretty much the whole time I'm at home, except on weekends. I think the lack of real light really is getting to me.

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:27:48 GMT

Thanks to the freezing rain for which Ohio isn't well known, but should be, it took an hour to travel the 15 miles home today from work. I saw evidence of at least three accidents on the way.

My sister has found what looks like the absolutely perfect house for me, in an exurb not far from where I live. The price seems quite reasonable for what you get. But "reasonable" doesn't mean "affordable". If I do the numbers ambitiously, I can just about tie all the ends together. If I do them conservatively, I'd need a housemate for at least a decade. It might almost be worth it.

Finally finished CoE

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:55:13 GMT

I knew going in -- thanks to some spoiler-happy person, don't remember who -- that Jack would ultimately kill his grandson. I didn't know why or how, though. So I didn't have a "no, Jack, don't do it!" dawning of horror. I knew he would.

As soon as Frobisher spoke to Bridget after his meeting with PM ("Mr. Greene" -- ha!) I knew what he was going to do. And I can't blame him for it. I very much liked the valediction Bridget gave him -- the eulogy, essentially. (She knew what he was going to do, I'm sure of it.)

When Lois told Bridget that Frobisher had said he wanted Lois by his side, I interpreted Bridget's reaction as assuming Frobisher and Lois were having some kind of liason, especially when she told Lois, "Don't think you're the first!" But she meant, the first PA he'd asked for specifically. Though I am certain as I can be that their relationship was chaste and not particularly intimate, she knew him and watched him for years and years, and, I think, loved him -- silently, discreetly, and without desire -- very much. He was important to her as he was to almost no one else not surnamed Frobisher.

I did feel horror, and pride in RTD, in realizing what the 456 wanted the children for. And, though it's not said, it can be assumed that once they get their 10% of human children, they'll be back in a few years for another harvest. Giving them the children wouldn't get rid of them permanently. I doubt whatever it was Jack turned on them through the children's screams got rid of them permanently, either.

I doubt the New Testament resonance of Jack shaking the dirt of Earth from his feet is coincidental. (The Magic Answer Box tells me that the phrase occurs in three of the Gospels.) And yet, though there were plenty of fetid, corrupted people on display during this, all of them were put in an impossible position by the 456. Barring a magical intervention by someone like the Doctor, the only other alternative was to accept extermination (though I like to think that Churchill, given the choice, would have chosen extermination.) It's not Earth and its people that Jack is shaking from his thoughts, it's his sense of himself as one of them.

I loved the way Rhys upped his game and did his bit, how he went undercover into the lion's den with Gwen (though he wouldn't have let her go alone) and how he used his knowledge of the hauling industry to find a safe, untraceable way for himself and Gwen to get to London. The Torchies have always looked down on Rhys, but he's a good, brave, capable man. (He is, thank goodness, not given Mickey-the-idiot pratfalls with buckets and such: the snobbery of the Torchies is clear for what it is.)

I also liked the characterization of Ianto's sister and brother-in-law. The brother-in-law -- Johnny -- is crass and boorish, but he's loyal to Ianto (he says to his sister, "We're the only family he has!") and arranges a distraction so Ianto's sister can meet him, and he more than stands up for his family and the other kids on the estate. Yeah, his first thought is his ten quid a head for minding the kids, but he's a decent and resourceful man.

(I liked P.C. Andy's throwing in with the estate residents, too, though it took him long enough! I was certain when the unnamed anti-terrorist squad put him in the car in Day Two, that he wouldn't survive the trip. I was glad he did.)

I would like to see some comparison of the Jack-Gwen-Rhys triangle to that of Rose, the Doctor, and Rose's connections on Earth. Gwen, unlike Rose, wants a normal life with a stable man as well as adventure, and knows it. She says so, several times. She finds Jack as appealing as Rose finds the Doctor, but, though she dallies with Owen, she never lets go of Rhys. I find this believable and human, though I know many don't, or claim not to. (Perhaps I'm more sympathetic than most to the desire to have it both ways.)

So Jack has turned on his sub-etha waveband signaling device, and is out to forget his troubles and see the galaxy. Good luck to him, on both fronts.

Buying a Netbook

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:54:33 GMT

I'd like to buy a netbook. I'd like it to have Windows 7, in a fairly full-strength version. (I don't plan to make it my primary computer, but I do have something I need to do fairly soon that needs Windows 7.)

Anybody have any recommendations or warnings?

Just finished watching CoE Day 4

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:26:39 GMT

I was spoiled for Ianto's death, so it didn't come as a shock to me. This is probably to the good, as I cried, anyway. I saw the first few minutes of Day 5, and heard Gwen's comment about the Doctor not coming to save them. I'm glad they addressed that particular elephant. I'd got the impression from other people's comments (and fanfic) that his absence never was mentioned.

I was pleased to see Nick Briggs getting a role as himself ("Mr. Yates") and not just as a voice. He is better known as a voice actor, as we all know, but he did a fine job with his small role.

In the context of Torchwood, John Barrowman has always come off more like a green screen effect than an actual participant in the action. There's always been something slightly off about his performance: he's stood out almost like a Toon. But he pulled it off here. I think he may actually be picking up this acting thing.

(I enjoyed the exchange he had with Ianto after the reveal of his participation in the earlier sacrifice of children. It went something like:

IANTO: I've just scratched the surface!
JACK: That's all there is.
IANTO: You like to pretend that.

Among other things, it addresses the artificiality of Jack's performance in the first two series: he's playing a part, and Jack-the-character is not a good actor, whatever John Barrowman's abilities may be.)

I'd forgotten the ability of good media to pull you out of yourself and whatever funk you may be in. I was feeling a bit sad this morning, and watching CoE from the couch quite took me out of it, or it out of me.

Knitting and telly-watching

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:54:19 GMT

I'm about 1/3 of the way through my first test swatch. I can already see that the design will need work. Translating the desired position of holes into yarn overs and decreases is more complicated than it looks. But I still believe the desired result is possible.

I'm also watching CoE. Frobisher is an interesting character: from the beginning, we knew that he was, at the least, morally flawed. But he's gradually being revealed as even more craven and compromised than we thought. (I'm halfway through Episode 3.) And yet, you feel for him in his terror.

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:41:59 GMT

My friend S. said that every man has a zombie contingency plan. I asked two colleagues if they did. It turned out that one of them did and the other had given it thought.

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:30:22 GMT

Got to work on time, which, considering the night I had, is really remarkable.

My external backup drive is telling me it isn't formatted and asking whether I want to format it. This is ominous. I am running WD diagnostics on it now. My guess is that it's going to fail, if it isn't already dead and just echoing like one of those little memory things in SitL. This will be the third or fourth external drive I've had die in three years. Unlike the previous one to die, this one is at least a year out of warranty.

Oh, well, it gives me an occasion to go to the computer store, and I have presents to buy.

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 09:09:15 GMT

It is four am.

I have been waking every half hour since midnight.

There was a creepy bug in the bathroom.

I can't stand this.