sundries: laws of the universe department

[rm]

I have to wear formal white breeches this weekend. Which of course means I just got my period.

I rightly ordered my binder to home, since I apparently chose the non-discrete company. Annoyingl, I now have to go to the post office to pick it up.

Er, it might fucking snow this weekend. Snow is charming, but that blows.

Patty, bless her little non-Whovian heart, showed me hilarious camera phone pictures of an impromptu birthday cake they made for a coworker out of little debbie cakes, chocolate frosting, snocaps and licorice. It was Daleks! The person the cake was for did not know what Daleks were.

Jack & Ianto pumpkin carving template. Actually, she might be sad she's getting to miss howling with affectionate laughter as I curse the pumpkin. Anyway, if anyone else does it, you gotta take pics!

Why my tickets to Zurich have still not been purchased: a coworker's last name is too long to fit entirely in the booking field and no one knows what to do. Tickets in hand. Really going to Switzerland. Er... I feel complicated and moody.

Gay man beaten to death in Trafalgar Square. I'm not sure why I keep posting these all of a sudden, perhaps it's as a furtherance of the "being gay makes people lie and this is why" conversation. Maybe I'm just appalled. You know, the truth is, this shit happens all the time, but I think people think it doesn't happen in New York City, it doesn't happen in London. Yeah, well, it does.

Meanwhile, I almost hesitate to link to this Daily Mail nonsense about the Gately death, and it makes me feel a bit like if I lived in Britain I'd go a little bit insane. I'm not sure why it reads as more awful to me than crap in US papers -- I guess here we've figured out by now that straight couples have threesomes, do drugs and all the rest too. On the other hand, maybe we're just too busy equating gay sex with bestiality to wonder about a gay couple bringing home a third? Anyway, it's an annoying, bullshit, slimy piece to which my main thought is "more people of more types do more "outre" shit than you can possibly imagine. Beyond being dead, this shit is so not news." Of course, the article is really just one more iteration of "check out these people who were richer and cooler and more sophisticated than you because they were DEVIANT, and now one of them is DEAD, aren't you secretly glad?" It's just so tiring. Is everyone always worrying whether they are keeping up with the Joneses (or whomever) in their most private of lives? Yeah, probably. We're a stupid species. (this link and the previous via smirnoffmule.)

Where the Wild Things Are was not a huge part of my childhood, but the movie looks sooooooo amazing to me. There's something very emotionally primal and aesthetically Nordic about all the clips I've seen so far... I'm not sure what it is, but it really speaks to something in me. I am, to be frank, a little worried I will either be disappointed (since I am so excited) or heartbroken by the film in a way where I won't be okay for a little while (films with ordinary childhood traumas in them -- bullying, fights with parents, etc. -- tend to be very difficult for me to watch. Films where these things are heightened -- say, the abandonment scene in A.I. -- I've got to force myself not to run out of the theater.). So we'll see how that all goes.

Last night we wound up at once of those hidden New York nightclubs for marrus's book party thing. There was a room filled with a multi-story couch cave and Patty and I hid in it and were glad to be warm and chattered about how it was a cat tree for humans, and it was all very odd and then I ran into some guy I met at Marrus's house years ago who apparently works near me and sees me on the street all the time. Then we left to get catfood, but not before I had figured out an episode of Io Station for ConSweet. The whole show within a book factor makes this a lot of work, but it also makes this funny. It's like "place cracky idea in water, grow fandom."

My father CC'd me on a (presumably accidentally) blank email to authorhouse. Whatever this is, it's going to be annoying.

Imaginary City at BAM tonight.

Now off to two different post offices (pick something up at one, check P.O. box at another), then work, then briefly get dance slippers for Patty, then more work, then BAM! Bam Bam. BAM BAM BAM! -- It's like the fucking Flintstones.

We leave for CT in the morning.

Comments

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Good grief, that Jack/Ianto jack[anto]-o'-lantern pattern looks awesome! (But tricky, as comments at the post attest.)

I'm not even wading into the whole Daily Fail thing except to observe that @stephenfry has RT'd a link that may help people to encourage the book to be thrown at that rag for their actions. As you say, stupid.

WHAAAT SNOOOOW NOOOOES.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Re: snow -- We'll be in CT. I think NYC is safe.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

That Gately piece is revolting-- youngish healthy men do occasionally die for no apparent reason, the article admits it, and then goes on to insist that there must have been something (what?) sleazy.

Re: Gately Death

[dulcinbradbury.livejournal.com]

Last week I went to the wake of a perfectly healthy forty year old. He thought he had indigestion, decided to take some antacid & a nap, & never got up again. Massive heart attack... just like his father.

Before I knew him, my husband discovered his friend & coworker who was in his early 30s had dropped dead in his office. Undiagnosed heart condition.

So yah... I *can* believe the poor guy dropped dead of an undiagnosed hereditary heart condition. And while I'm pissed that the article wants to make it as sordid as possible, I understand a little. To see someone else die of natural causes at a young age is terrifying. If you can find a way to rationalize it as something *else* to blame... then you can talk yourself into believing you can avoid it.

[pineapplechild.livejournal.com]

I'll warn you now, having just went to see Where the Wild Things Are, there's a lot of that. And it hit me like a punch at points. So, you may want to get an aisle seat if you go see it. I highly recommend it, however.

[gummitch.livejournal.com]

That Daily Mail piece about Gately, check out the comments. There's currently 500+ and they're overwhelmingly expressions of disgust... at the journalist!

I won't hold my breath, but I can hope that the sleazy rag takes note and moderates their knee-jerk homophobia.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Even better, major brands are requesting that their ads be removed from the page (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/16/stephen-gately-jan-moir-complaints). That's how to get them where it hurts :D

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Nice one! I wonder if that's at the instigation of yet another Twitter or blogosphere campaign to get people to write in to the advertisers saying "are you sure you want your brand connected with *this*...?"

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Do you have the link for the CC TV footage of the ultimate fighting guys in Cardiff beating the crap out of a couple of Chavs who assumed they were queer because they were in drag for a party?

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, that was one of the times the Daily Fail reported something not quite so failtastic. Um. It was on ontd_political but now I can't find the link. Augh. It was a couple of rather drunk cage-fighters on a stag-night beating up on a bunch of equally-drunk homophobes.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Possibly because the DM hates chavs even more than it hates queer people. Though I wonder if the tone mightn't have been slightly different if the guys had turned out to really be queer.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Most likely, alas.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

They've edited that Gately article since I read it this morning - the headline is now different (previously it was "Nothing 'natural' about Gately death" or something along those lines). I can't see any changes in the text, but hopefully this is an indication they recognise this is a tonal step too far.

[tildathebuilder.livejournal.com]

Thankfully, not every paper is as awful as the Daily mail Why there was nothing 'human' about Jan Moir's column on the death of Stephen Gately

There are links to the Press complains commission at the end of the article. I don't know if you can complain if you are not in the UK.

[kshandra]

A UK-based friend who did complain noted quite happily that there is currently a specific "If you wish to complain about Jan Moir's column in the Daily Mail CLICK HERE" link on the PCC site.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Not that the British press isn't pretty useless at keeping track of whats outragous and what's just everyday life, but the Daily Mail is well known for having the most hide-bound, shocked, reactionary responses to everything. Its full of nasty articles stirring up fear and disgust about gay people, immigrants, fat people, thin people, left-wing people, right wing people - atucally if you can drag it through the mud and make it seem a scandalous shocking issue, they'll be there doing the dragging while the rest of us are wondering what the problem is. The level of disgust they're getting is encouraging.

[kshandra]

OMG THAT SITE HAS KEITH AND RACHEL PUMPKIN TEMPLATES.

[rm.livejournal.com]

OMG THAT IS EVEN MORE AWESOME THAN TORCHWOOD.

(and Patty may be even _more_ relieved I've no pumpkin skills now).

[kshandra]

If I was even remotely competent, I'd be getting some of those craft-foam pumpkins to do this, so I could use them over and over.

(Dude, [Templated content removed during import.]Jareth.)

edited for HTMfaiL

[lorem_ipsum]

There was a room filled with a multi-story couch cave and Patty and I hid in it and were glad to be warm and chattered about how it was a cat tree for humans

Eeeeexcellent. I want one now.

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

The white pith of citrus peels has been very useful for me as a way to throttle back on bleeding. Your milage may vary. nom nom nom lemon skins

[rm.livejournal.com]

Like eating all the time or just when bleeding or when?

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

My situation is fucked up so I eat them all the time, but I do ramp up and eat more when bleeding. So yes, they can be used like a temporary tonic, the way you would have a ginger something for an upset tummy, or coffee to help with an asthma attack. I need to use it all the time as maintenance, but the effect can be used as a band aid.
Test drive it. I'd say even 1/4 of an orange of peel should be enough to test. You should notice an effect within an hour. If it doesn't help you, then don't bother with it.

[seaopaque.livejournal.com]

Yeah Where The Wild Things Are made me cry. A lot. Bring an absorbent shoulder.

[oncomingscone.livejournal.com]

Hi, just wanted to say that as a British woman I'm unspeakably shocked about the man being beaten to death in Trafalgar Square. I moved to LA a year ago and I find the attitudes and division here suffocating, so I've always considered London to be a comparative oasis in so far as people are people, and in my experience don't need to be restricted to certain areas.

However, I suppose hatred and violence are omni-geographical and no place is immune. Plus I can get romantic about London.

As for The Daily Mail, it frequently appalls me. I compare it to Fox News, which I'm also shocked can exist. The Mail pretends to be more than the dreadful tabloid it is, and does nothing but generate and perpetuate fear and hatred. The Urban Dictionary has a wonderful definition:

"The only brand of toilet paper that, when used, leaves more shit on you than you started with."

I'm ashamed Britain has this newpaper, but I'm comforted to know that the PCC has received that many complaints. My dream is to see The Daily Mail shut down in my lifetime. What they do to celebrities is one thing, but I've seen them destroy ordinary people's lives (my neighbour) by printing complete lies. And of course, ordinary people can't afford to sue. Disgusting.

I think that's enough from me now. Good luck with the period. I enjoy your sundries regularly, by the way.

[awils1.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I'm pretty much disgusted with everything at the moment.

I too enjoy your bulleted lists!

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure why it reads as more awful to me than crap in US papers -- I guess here we've figured out by now that straight couples have threesomes, do drugs and all the rest too.

Which US papers do you mean? I certainly hold no brief for the Daily Fail (as you may recall, I mentioned its sheer awfulness in relation to the story about the curry, the slug pellets and the three legged cat, and it is notorious in Britian for its overt support for Hitler and for the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s) but the general level of casual homophobia in the US publications I read (I get the NYT and Washington Post online, and the Wall Street Journal in various offices and various articles from other newspapers online) still seems pretty high

[st-aelphaba.livejournal.com]

WTWTA was extremely visceral for me, beautiful and horrible. I'm still processing it today.