I had one job for the entire year, and lived in my own house. I made a resolution to go do some new adventure every month, and managed it a few times. I made new friends. I edited several books. I played a lot of video games. I became close with people who I thought were the very best of friends, and I was wrong. I fought with the one I loved the most, and then we talked afterward. I helped my husband through professional exam prep, which would have made this year difficult no matter what. Several of my friends had babies. I am now an aunt.

I made poor decisions, and I made smart decisions. I wish things had gone differently, and I wouldn't change some things for the world. I learned.

I miss a lot of people who used to be in my life, or who only show up now and then on the internet.

I am going to a party tonight. I anticipate having fun. I have a bottle of ice wine to bring with me, in order to celebrate the mid-winter New Year.

To all of you out there - Happy New Year.

Off of The Ferrett's post: http://theferrett.livejournal.com/1766657.html

There is a difference between hazard, risk, and exposure. A hazard, such as a flame or a chemical, simply exists. The inherent dangers are the same no matter the circumstances. You can limit your exposure to the hazard by wearing lab coats or moving slowly and carefully, or just by refusing to enter the room where the hazard resides. The chance of harm from the hazard, as mitigated by the methods of limiting exposure, is the risk.

I could do everything right in my life. I could only wear non-slutty clothes. I could only go to the good parts of town. I could be escorted everywhere I go, especially at night. I could take every self-defense class. I could learn all the witty repartee necessary to disengage from other people without offense. But I cannot alter the hazard of other people wanting to harm, harass, or rape me. I can mess with exposure all I like to lower the risks to me. But, ultimately, if someone else decides to do something to me, that is not my fault, whether I've taken every single to limit exposure or not. The hazard simply exists.

Human nature is a little more tricky, of course. Am I insecure because my friend is pulling away from me? Or is my friend pulling away from me because I'm insecure? Nonetheless, it is not my responsibility to modulate other people's behavior. It is theirs.

Therefore, when discussing a topic about harmful interpersonal contact, like harassment, rape, or abuse, make sure to keep the discussion of the hazard and the exposure limitation methods separate. Because there if there exists a hazard, there is no way to bring the risk down to 0%.

  Today has been a good day.  I got to quibble over the use of synonyms for vagina, which frankly needs to happen more often.  Also, editing well-written porny prose is fun!  I tossed sociological ideas back and forth with a friend over gchat about identity, social groups, and language.  

J: It all comes down to neural networks interfacing with one another through incredibly low-fidelity, low-bandwidth connections.
Me: And I like your neural network metaphor.It works well to explain how much miscommunication there is.
J: Oh, that's a literal statement. :Whether carbon- or silicon-based, the software on those platforms continues to converge.

I'm having an evening in, reading overthinky blogs, watching silly reviews, eating leftovers, and drinking.  

And I'm fucking loving it.  

If I owe you a call, I have a lengthy queue and you are on it.  

Finished Utena. I need to go to bed, so better reaction post later. I loved it. The ending was just right.

Not done with Utena yet. Just finished episode 32. Am torn between "what the hell is going on" and "omgewomgewomgew". I absolutely cannot stand Akio or Touga. They are so slimy that I hope their fate is to be locked in a room together never to be seen again.

I'm finally watching Revolutionary Girl Utena. I'm a bit over halfway (at the end of the second storyline) and I cannot think of the last show that has kept me so in the dark and completely tripping balls as much as this one.

I love it.

I just bought two memberships today. All I have to do now is send off the check for our (half) of a hotel room, and I will be set! Check is in the mail. I'm going to Dragon*Con!!!

[dancing in excitement]

To everyone who reads this who celebrates Christmas: May you have a merry one.

If you don't? Then I hope you have a wonderful day.

I have sprained my big toe by tripping over it.

I don't even know, y'all.

( Cut for character speculation spoilersCollapse )

In real-life based news, most of the boxes are now gone from our townhouse! I now have enough space to...go through more boxes. Woo. It needs doing before the snow comes, so we have a garage to park in.

I'm so tired of the food in the house, but I don't have much to cook, and husband has eaten out four times this week already (this is what happens when you need to have lots of business lunches/dinners) and doesn't want to go out because of the calories. And normally I'd just go out on my own, but I don't want to. I'm just a big pile of "I don't want to do thaaaat" so now I can't decide on anything. Blech. It would help if the restaurants around here were cheaper. Quality, can't argue with. But I don't feel like spending twenty bucks on a meal for one right now.

I think I might be cranky.

To hell with out. I'll just stay cranky if I stay inside. To sushi!

I just bought copperbadge's new book Charitable Getting, as well as catvalente's new book The Habituation of the Blessed. Clearly I haven't read either yet, so I can't avow to their quality. But I am so excited. Both came out on the 1st, and both authors are amazing and wonderful (in very different ways). And they both have an active presence online, which is always fun.

In case you didn't know, catvalente was nominated for a Hugo with her book Palimpest, so her awesome is totally verified and quantifiable. And copperbadge has all of his readers beta-read his original novels and I've still bought both of his books hard-copy.

In short: SO EXCITE!

Thanks to you, I'm now obsessed with the Sims again. And I just bought Sims 3. Ta ever so.

As revenge, I should make a Sim of you. And then make her interact with a Franziska. That'll show you.

( Does anyone care about spoilers?Collapse )

I'm home from the office! I have this afternoon and tomorrow off, and I have two things I need to do for them over the weekend. I'm currently just celebrating the fact that I'm at home and my kitty has already stolen my lap.

This afternoon I need to: call the bank and get new checks ordered. Post on rpol.net. Call my friend who invited me over for Halloween as we're playing phone tag. Run to Meijer to pick up stamps and a couple of other things that I need. And probably get the receipts together from my trips down here.

I've also set dental and doctor's appointments for next week. I'm astonished - I called yesterday and I'll set both for within seven days. I didn't think these things happened anymore. I don't feel like I really should be excited for either one; I know it won't be enjoyable. However, it's ben a while, and it's nice to have real health insurance. And to know that I can do all the preventative care that I know is important without blowing my budget for the month.

Oh I also need to start playing the first Professor Layton game today! I need to go plug in my DS and let it charge...

1) Keeping busy at my non-profit.

2) Husband is home from a two week trip to Europe! It has been very nice to spend the weekend with him.

3) Working on making a list of all Poison Ivy appearances in DCU (this will take a while). Am planning on buying a trade or couple of issues a month until I have a good collection up.

4) On that note, excellent comic book store staffed by awesome guys and gals is excellent.

5) Columbus is such an awesome city.

6) It's October! Which means that everyone is in the mood for Halloween, which is the best damn holiday of the year. Everywhere is playing great music (I heard Toccata and Fugue in D Minor followed by the theme from Halloween at the grocery store today), people are doing scary-media-themed things online, and there is candy! Growing up Christian but living atheist, I sometimes have conflicted feelings about most of the popular holidays, but there is absolutely no downside to Halloween. Except maybe slutoween. But what's dressing up without sneering at other people's choices.

7) I have an office! It has my new desk, two bookshelves full of books, my comfy red chair, my keyboard and bench, and it is painted a beautiful peacock blue. And has huge windows. I simply love it and already feel at home, even though I've got nothing on the walls yet.

8) I'm going to visit some friends of mine for Halloween weekend! I don't know how long I'll be able to visit them yet, as I've got some stuff going on, but I will probably know after tomorrow. It will be awesome fun, I haven't seen them in a year and a half.

9) You guys are awesome. Yes, you. Every single damn one of you. Especially if you don't post very often, because that means that I enjoy the hell out of your posts when you do!

That I'm far more invested in the (maybe never gonna happen) Deadpool movie than I am the (maybe never gonna happen) Hobbit movie. I'm not entirely certain what that says about me as a fangirl.

I'm also stoked for The Tempest. I mean, Helen Mirren as Prospera. Come on!

I need to leave again for the office I'm volunteering at in fifteen minutes. This is only my third week volunteering there, and I'm kinda wondering how they survived without me, and also have been told directly and indirectly that they want to hire me. If they had money (non-profit). It's very flattering. It's also exhausting. I'm just volunteering, but I hate leaving things unfinished, and there's just so much to do.

In short: tired tired tired. happy. FANDOM!

I made it safely to my townhouse in Columbus. I've spent the last couple of days checking out the town, eating delicious food, and picking out paint colors. I'm doing this nice arts-and-crafts green for the living/dining/kitchen area, and have a nice buttery cream for the bedroom and one of the offices. I have absolutely no idea what color I'm painting my office at this time.

My one complaint about my new hometown is, well, between the trees (which are lovely and I like trees!) and the sign ordinance (which makes the town seem very classy and all)...I can't see what stores/restaurants are in what shopping center. The trees block almost all view of the signs on the buildings, and the small signs out front are not complete. So I keep trying to find stores or restaurants but I can't because the trees are in the way.

Today is prepping for painting. Oh gods the tape. *sobs* I'm listening to the made_of_fail podcast, which is helping the time go by. Tomorrow, I paint!

Tonight, to celebrate the new job and the move, I am going to eat at a restaurant that serves Wagyu beef and $2000 bottles of wine.

Maybe I should shave my legs.

I hate it - hate it - when I'm reading in a bookstore. And some guy keeps talking to me, asking me about what I'm reading, asking me if I like Twilight and what does misogyny mean and all this ignorant crap that I don't want to deal with and I didn't invite except that I was polite and talked back to him.

And I hate it even more when I realize after I've walked off in annoyance that what I should have done is asked him to leave me alone. I especially hate that someone else had to remind me that I can do that.

1) I don't post here often enough to have anything to worry about.
2) You are all fantastic enough not to do it.
3) Don't retweet/repost (especially to FB) anything on my LJ.
4) Of course I'll extend the same courtesy to you!

Not only was this my favorite episode of the season thus far (Peggy! And Joan!) but Jonathan joined the cast! I have no idea if he'll be in more episodes, but he's surely got to pop up again sometime?

I am so glad that I am moving out of this tiny town in the middle of nowhere Michigan. They aren't showing Scott Pilgrim. It's been out for two weeks, and they don't have it at my theater. I'm going to have to drive 27 miles in order to see this film. But I will see it.

I am currently playing with my LJ layout, trying to find something new and clean (but not boring) to do with it. There will be much much more playing with it as I currently hate the colors etc.

Also my mother is here for a visit. Coordinating between her, my husband, my brother, and my brother's girlfriend is special. Also this visit is slightly higher in family drama than normal visits, and I do not anticipate the amount of drama to decrease throughout the holiday season (etc). At least Mom likes my brother's girlfriend whom she met for the first time yesterday (and was introduced to family drama some five minutes later).

I need a drink. And an evening alone.

OMG GUYS MATT GOT A JOB OFFER I THINK I KNOW WHERE I'LL BE LIVING IN THREE MONTHS (WAITING TO SEE IF WILL GET COMPETING OFFER FROM OTHER PLACE) AND OMG YOU GUYS I AM SO EXCITED THERE'S A JOB OFFER IN THE CITY I LIKED!