sundries

[rm]

Sure enough, having sent the paper in, last night I could sleep.

Meanwhile vacation approval. Or rather, I'm now in the clear to buy my plane ticket to the UK for the conference, and to Dragon*Con. I'll probably hold off on getting the Dragon*Con ticket until Patty and I are 100% sure if she's coming or not (duh), but I may buy the UK ticket tonight.

Also we found out today that Patty (and I) have been invited to the wedding of two of her archaeology friends. It's near Chicago in August. I AM SO EXCITED, BECAUSE I LOVE CHICAGO SO FUCKING MUCH. Millennium Park will always have a little piece of my heart.

But back to the UK: I need your help.

I'm not going for very long. I'll leave the US the night of July 7, arrive in London the morning of July 8. Then I have to decide if I'm going to spend the day in London or just head directly to Bristol or Cardiff.

Cardiff is the real wrench in the entire situation at this point, as originally I had little intent on going to Cardiff this trip unless Kali, who is also presenting at the conference and will be in London with her partner long before I get there, wanted to go too; I'll be seeing enough of Cardiff in the fall with Patty there, after all.

However, then someone pointed out to space cadet me that July 9 marks the one year external (since the internal show date was sometime in September) anniversary of Jones's (can you tell I've been writing the paper? -- I've lost the reflex to call him Ianto) death, and if I'm really intending to expand this research and I'm going to be in the UK anyway, I should fucking go to Cardiff, although a part of me would really like to give that particular experience a miss (also, if I stay in London into the 9th, I can go to St. Katharine's Dock!).

So now I have to decide if I want to be in Cardiff on the 9th, and if that means staying in Cardiff the night of the 8th, or going up that morning and then going to Bristol that night, or getting into Bristol the morning of the 10th, which is the day of my paper and seems like a terrible plan. Anyway, then I have the 11th somewhere, and then I leave back to the US the afternoon of the 12th. And I can't figure out any of it other than I will be in Bristol delivering a paper on the 10th.

Can someone tell me what the fuck makes sense here? Also, remember: public transit only. I don't drive. I do want to figure this out soon, as it will save me a lot of money to buy all the rail fares involved in this clusterfuck early.

Also: I am already dreaming of Tesco. Hello, gluten-free bakewell tarts, how are you?

Also also: I can fly Delta/KLM again for the frequent flier miles (I fly them a lot, and am really racking up the miles), but for the same ridiculous fare (this flight is going to cost over $900) I can fly Virgin Atlantic. Is Virgin Atlantic so worth it I should? I do love Virgin America and it makes me feel like a rock star.

When I post about a type of homophobia that occurs in fandom, it can seem a bit derail-y when your response is less along the lines of "what's a good way to label my stories to offend less people?" and more along the lines of "I want to be warned when something deviates from canon" or "slash can mean other things." Both the canon deviation issue and the slash can mean other things thing are true, and those are worthy discussion topics, but when you jump in with that in response to the issue I was discussing it kinda reads a bit "my fanfiction enjoyment is more important than your discomfort with homophobia" and I know you don't mean that (really, I really, really do), so caution please?

Apparently the Key West tar balls aren't from BP. No one knows where they are from.

Sea turtles at risk.

Judging women. The New York Times talks about gender issues and the select few; it's bound to be a lot of things, not all of them relevant, useful or pleasant (I've not read it yet).

The impact pot has on your dining out experiences. Anthony Bourdain asserts, "There has been an entire strata of restaurants created by chefs to feed other chefs. These are restaurants created specially for the tastes of the slightly stoned, slightly drunk chef after work" and the article just goes from there.

Lots of animals need our help every day. In one particular instance, there are 100 cats that could really use your help today.

I've just been invited to join a World Cup betting pool. I know next to nothing about the relevant sport (wherein, I feel like an asshole if I call it soccer and ridiculous if I call it football), but I tend to win money when I bet on things, so now I'm like "hrrrr, why not?"

OM NOM NOM: Dried apples with cinnamon and gluten-free shortbread.

Comments

[anisoptera.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

Um, why would you announce in a New York Times article that you have three different kinds of pot in your refrigerator? That sounds more like, "Hey! Probable cause! Arrest me, please!"

Otherwise that article is interesting and made me both hungry, and sad that my body can't deal with pot.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Is Virgin Atlantic so worth it I should? I do love Virgin America and it makes me feel like a rock star.

Um. I had the most positive experiences (including managing to sleep on a red-eye, which I *never* do, but this was a new Airbus A340 and it was quiet!) with Virgin Atlantic, and they are seriously awesome, but there's something to be said for racking up the air miles for a rainy day...

UK Travel

[debitha.livejournal.com]

A day trip to Cardiff should be do-able (if maybe expensive) The trains run every half hour on that line. You should be able to go across from London to Cardiff late enought that you can go to the market in the morning, then spend the afternoon in Cardiff. The trip takes about two hours.

Getting back to Bristol takes about 50 minutes, and the train goes every half hour. You'd want to be careful that you got the train to Bristol Temple Meads, as the others are a million miles out of town.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

[threewalls]

http://www.transportdirect.info/

I use this website to plan all my travel via UK public transport. It'll tell you how long and how much any journey will be, as well as what connections and what cheap tickets are available. You will have to book your tickets through other websites, but this one links to them all.

[copyright1983.livejournal.com]

I've just been invited to join a World Cup betting pool. I know next to nothing about the relevant sport (wherein, I feel like an asshole if I call it soccer and ridiculous if I call it football), but I tend to win money when I bet on things, so now I'm like "hrrrr, why not?"

Not that this is necessarily my area of expertise (I much prefer *our* football, thank you), but I think I can be of assistance.

Nate Silver has put together the Soccer Power Index:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/spi/rankings?cc=5901&ver=us

There's plenty of explanations and caveats attached to it, of course. Use that as a guide, pick a couple of random early-round upsets to differentiate your picks from everyone else, and otherwise remember that favorites are favorites for a reason--they usually win. Good luck!

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

I just got a REALLY cheap flight rate for Dragon*Con. Seems to be the time to book!

Added an extra day on the front of the hotel stay, too. Didn't get the convention rate, but there were rooms!(Sheraton.)

Re: the derail. I had a discussion recently about bashing certain female characters which turned into "well, women are often jealous and mean to each other in RL!" which... actually was disturbing because the inference was "well, that's the way women are sometimes!" ...instead of "that's fucked-up and sabotaging how people treat one another".

It's weirdly illuminating (though exasperating) when things go off the rails. I didn't even have the energy to address it on that level at the time, though.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

When I post about a type of homophobia that occurs in fandom, it can seem a bit derail-y when your response is less along the lines of "what's a good way to label my stories to offend less people?" and more along the lines of "I want to be warned when something deviates from canon" or "slash can mean other things." Both the canon deviation issue and the slash can mean other things thing are true, and those are worthy discussion topics, but when you jump in with that in response to the issue I was discussing it kinda reads a bit "my fanfiction enjoyment is more important than your discomfort with homophobia" and I know you don't mean that (really, I really, really do), so caution please?

You are an absolute saint. Mean it.

[luke-jaywalker.livejournal.com]

Your third point: I think it was my comment you're driving at there and, if so, my apologies for unintentional derailing. Oh, and even-less-intentional offense.

Re: food and ganja story... stoner pizza drivers are practically a cliche, but back as a teen in Sydney, I knew of a Dominos crewed *entirely* by them, perhaps influenced by the fact that the manager was a dealer. If you went directly into the store and gave the right password (and rather a bit more money), you could get a pizza with the stuff cooked right in. Not nearly as tasty as it sounds, though.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

One of the things that tends to surprise me (tho it shouldn't, it really shouldn't, not anymore) is how often people who write slash assume that gives them an impeccable set of queer credentials, and they can't possibly be homophobic because Look! They write slash!!

*headdesk*

[torenheksje.livejournal.com]

Re: the football vs. soccer issue. You could always call it "footie" like the Brits do.

[wednesday]

Virgin Atlantic is pretty awesome, but not so awesome that you should lose out on the frequent flyer miles. (Me, I'm not so keen on flying Delta transatlantic unless what I end up with is a codeshare that's really on Air France. Air France is AWESOME.)

You can do Cardiff straightaway, but it sounds like what you really want to do is stay in London. Are you going to be able to get the data you need/want if you kinda don't want to be there?

Also, you're making me miss Tesco. America is wonderful, but it lacks Innocent smoothies and Duchy bacon. Sigh.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

1) "association football", "soccer" for short.

2) Brazil and Spain. Probably. Hmm. Take a flyer on the US/England game while you're at it. Tell your British friends that you're betting on a recreation of 1950. Grin evilly.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

It's OK to call it soccer if you're from the U.S. or in the confines of the U.S. :)

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Pro¹ tip: Bet Brazil, Italy, Germany or England, France on the outside, and you'll very probably do fine.

[1] Hahahahaha no not really. But I come from a country where it is called football and have watched the last two World Cups with enough enjoyment to be looking forward to this one.

[liminalia.livejournal.com]

Eee, you're coming to my town!

I love Anthony Bourdain. And he's right--everyone I've ever known in food service was a stoner.

[citrinesunset.livejournal.com]

Regarding the derailing issue: Personally, I feel like the "different meanings of slash" are a part of the issue, because I feel that a lot of people who justify warning for slash do so based on assumptions they have about the category as a whole (that slash is non-canon pairings, that it implies explicit sex, etc.). And even though slash =/= queerness, it's the predominant expression of queerness in fandom, and there isn't really anything to differentiate between slash and, well, anything else. I tend to blame the meanings assigned to slash as a big part of the problem, since they can reinforce the idea that slash doesn't have any connection to real queer people when it does, or that warning for it is no different than warning for any fandom trope or genre when it really is.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Re slash warning: You inspired me to make the bingo card I've been meaning to make forever (http://smirnoffmule.livejournal.com/118670.html).

[darklingwoods.livejournal.com]

One of the many, many reasons I enjoy your blog so much is how thoughtful you always are, and kind to a fault in assuming people mean the best (which shockingly they often do, but online most people assume the worst instead) Or are doing the best with the knowledge they have, and you are very gentle with your education. Just saying. Its a rarity and its appreciated.

I know its the anniversary, but do you need to be there for your paper? You don't sound like you really want to go? The last visit you had to the shrine sounded pretty remarkable, personally I've never been one for dates (timey wimey things) and I think the fall would be just as meaningful for you. Just thinking out loud here.

Will you be doing a panel at Dragon con?

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

If you happen to be in London on 8 July, a bunch of us (the crabbyoldbats) will almost certainly be in the Prince Arthur on Eversholt Street near Euston Station from about 5.45 onwards.

With regard to Cardiff; it's a fast train link and perfectly doable in a day (albeit it might be quite a long day). Try to book at least a week in advance and try to book specific trains at defined times, not open - this brings the cost down dramatically. Also, trains leaving before 9.30 are more expensive than those leaving after 9.30 am.

[sunday-best.livejournal.com]

I see an Anthony Bourdain mentioning in there! His show is among my favorite to watch. I liked his episode on basic cooking techniques...the only burger and fries I get hungry for is my own thanks to Anthony, lol.

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

Yay Chicago! I'm sure you'll be busy, but I could make it out to PF Chang's for food adventures if you're so inclined. Also, you and Patty are always welcome to crash at my place. :) We do have a guest room with a queen-size bed. It used to be the Mother Superior's room.