Mara

08:29 am: Beware of maudlin posts. Y'know, like this one.
I woke up this morning in a foulish mood. I can't decide if it's the date or if it's the fact Yael woke up at 3 and needed cuddling and then I couldn't get back to sleep for a long while. Or, y'know, both.

( Cut 'cause nobody really needs to read me being maudlin )

Okay, I'm done now. I don't think I'm going to manage shiny happy today, but I'll try to be less gloomy.

Tags: news

10:05 pm: Project Runway instacomment
( Cut for spoilers )

And on that note, I'm going to sleep. Or at least to bed to stare at the wall in the dark.

Tomorrow I will listen to the Torchwood radio play. I've got it, but I have this awful headache and I wasn't up to focusing on a radio play, it was easier to stare blankly at the TV while Suede and Sunburn Boy were annoying ;) (That's not a spoiler, right? I mean, it's like saying "the designers made dresses and some were hideous", it's kind of the way it is.)

Tags: television

10:32 am: Fic reading
Argl. I don't mind that people post WsIP, but I really hate when they don't mark it as such. Well, I guess in the case of the fic that's got me annoyed, the author doesn't really think of it as a WIP, but the story doesn't have an actual ending, so y'know, that seems unfinished to me. ::is cranky::

In my desperation to distract myself from things, I've also tried a bunch of Batman/Gordon Dark Knight fic. And I've found a number of well-written stories that aren't vastly out of character that still...don't work for me. I don't think the authors have done anything wrong, I just think that I'm completely incapable of shipping Batman and Jim Gordon or Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon. They just...to me it's so much a father/son relationship that I just can't see the potential for sex. At all. Maybe it's the comicverse background? Anyway, not my thing. (However, Batman/Gordon doesn't squick me in the way that Batman/Joker or Batman/Scarecrow does.)

I think this might be a good time to dig through archives and reread some older fic, stuff I know is good. I'm not sure I have the energy to wade through the slushpile. Comfortfic, here I come!

I really want to write some fic for ithurtsmybrain, because there are some amazingly fabulous pairings there. We'll see if I can find the brainpower for that. Meanwhile, I must go do laundry and empty the dishwasher...only an hour until I pick Yael up from school. ::sigh:: I can't wait until lunch bunch begins.

Tags: fic, writing

05:30 pm: Random stuff
Slaughterhouse charged with using child labor--That would be "the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant", BTW. ::is desperately ashamed of lansmen:: (This isn't new. It happened some months ago. I'm just getting around to mentally processing this.)

I need to do a bit of googling and see exactly which brands this company owns, because my family feels very strongly that we do not wish to buy from them. Oh, there we go, the UCSJ has a nice handy press release. Okay, they own Rubashkin's, Aaron, and David brands. Good, those were the ones we thought they owned and have been avoiding.

CNN also has a piece on why the only likely Oscar for Dark Knight is for Heath Ledger. I would like to note that my FIL, not noted for any interest in comics, action, SF, or anything remotely like a Batman movie, saw the movie and was quite impressed. (He went with my nephew Oz, IIRC.) He was actually somewhat impressed by the movie overall, with some caveats, but he thought Heath Ledger's performance was amazing.

Oh, and let me crosspost my post on cranky_editors, because some of you will be amused as well. ( Cut because this post is getting long )

And now I'm going to close my eyes and hope the world can be convinced to spin a little more slowly. Ugh.

Tags: editing, food, news

03:51 pm: ::wince::
There's an ongoing discussion in the neighborhood e-list about overcrowding and houses that have too many cars to fit and such. It's been skirting around saying "It's those durn furriners" but not quite going over the edge. But there's one dude I can always trust to go right over that edge. (I've mentioned him here before, in fact...)

Here's his latest response: I have had issues with not being able to park in my driveway...and it resulted in a confrontation with an El Salvadorian drunk guy. Needless to say he is now in jail pending deportation...I have notified my friends at ICE at DHS and they were very responsive. I work with DHS closely and I think my neighbors realize that screwing with me can get them a one way trip home.

::headdesk:: Ah yes, I can always trust this guy to destroy my faith in humanity, and once again he's succeeded. Last time I spoke up but this time I honestly don't have the energy or brainpower, which makes me feel bad. ::sigh:: I'll keep an eye on this discussion, though, and see if there's something I can say to ratchet down the anti-Hispanic attitudes a notch.

Argl.

Tags: home

08:36 am: More politics and religion...run away!
The Post has a headline on its website "Palin church promotes converting gays." And here's the thing: Obviously, I despise the idea of converting gays. I want to smash in the heads of the smug people telling gay people they're broken so much I can't even begin to tell you.

However...I don't care what Palin's church is saying, I care what Palin is saying about the issue. Just like I didn't think that Obama's minister's views on race necessarily reflected his views, I don't think this proves anything about Palin. Show me something where she said she supports converting gays and I'll happily bash away, believe me.

Look, I belong to a synagogue, okay? There are various reasons for that but that's just the way it is. As it happens, it's a moderately liberal synagogue, but I'm sure it's promoted things I disagree with at some point. Hell, it promotes the idea that a deity exists and I vehemently disagree with that! You cannot take my regular attendance at Congregation Beth El as proof that I believe in a deity or anything else.

There are Conservative synagogues that are not particularly gay-friendly. If Beth El were one of those, it would not prove that I'm not gay-friendly. (As it happens, I'm proud to say that our rabbis will conduct marriages for gay couples, but I didn't know that until fairly recently.)

All of this is to say that I'm very tired of being told what Palin's church does or Obama's minister says. Yes, those are possible clues, but they're not proof of anything and when it comes to very important issues I'd rather have more direct proof than guilt by association.

Tags: news, politics, religion

06:20 pm: OMG, so cute
Today was Yael's visit to her new classroom and she loved it so much she cried when we left. She loved it so much that we walked right by Jasper on the way out and she didn't notice him because she was too busy being upset.

Just now, Avi was talking to her about how he's going to co-op in her classroom on Monday and how great it will be and she started to get agitated. She ran into the living room and asked me to drive them to school on Monday "because Daddy doesn't know how to get there."

I assured her that he did know how to get to her school but she was almost in tears. "But he doesn't know where my class is."

"I'll tell him, I promise."

"But he doesn't know." Seriously, tears are starting to drip at the fear she might not get to class with Daddy. (And Daddy's starting to be slightly offended, mind ::snerk::)

"Yes, he does. He knows it's room 202, and he knows it's upstairs. You won't get lost." Dubious look. At this point I was getting desperate. "And even if he did get lost, he could ask someone for directions. Miss Elaine could tell him and Miss Susan could tell him and Mr. Mike could tell him."

And thelesters will be amused to know that that was the winning argument. Once she was reminded the Mike the security guard would be there to guide Daddy, she calmed down. Because Mike knows everything. (Well he does. He knows every parent and most of the grandparents and every kid and believe me, nobody's walkin' outta that school with a kid they're not supposed to have.)

Tags: beps, yael

06:11 pm: Squee!!!
For the record, stexgirl2000 is a goddess among women.

::clutches Godiva box to chest:: I've just had a raspberry ganache twirl that made my tastebuds sing. ::is happy:: Oh yes, hon, chocolate makes a *lot* of things better :)

(It also helps that I've finally realized that the Zofran is actually making me high. Seriously, it dampens nausea by messing with serotonin levels. And when the drug is working, I'm actually bouncing off the walls. I thought it was relief at not being nauseated but...my sister called a little while ago and I talked at her for 25 minutes. I think she got like five words in edgewise. Anyone who's seen me after I drink an entire caffeinated soda will know exactly what it was like.)

::goes off to flip the sweet potato fries so sproglet will eat something other than crackers for dinner::

Tags: food, pregnancy

02:51 pm: An assortment of things
It's probably a bad sign that I'm already getting homicidal at headlines that ask things like "Can a mom of 5 be VP?" ::headdesk::

The answer, BTW, is YES. Yes, a mother of 5 children can be VP. In fact, she can also be a stay-at-home mom, a governor, a senator, an editor, an accountant, a doctor...

However, there are basically no circumstances under which I would vote for Sarah Palin for any position higher than dogcatcher, and it has nothing to do with how many kids she has. It has to do with the fact that I vehemently disagree with her on pretty much every important issue in this country. There's probably something I agree with her on, but I haven't found it yet.

So if the media doesn't lay off the "mom of 5" crap, I swear I'm gonna go postal.

(Yes, I know I'm preaching to the choir, as it were. I just felt the need for a momentary rant. Thank you for letting me get that out of my system.)

In other news, I would like to nominate the inventors of Zofran for some kind of humanitarian award. I'm still slightly ill, but I'm feeling so much better that I'm actually planning to make dinner tonight. Nothing fancy, but hey, the only cooking I've done in the last month and a half involved boiling pasta.

::clutches Zofran happily to chest::

Today we went to the park and met most of Yael's classmates for this year. I've promptly forgotten the names and faces of all the new ones and there's no chance I'll remember the name of any mother I didn't know already. ::sigh:: I'd love to blame that on pregnancy brain, but sadly, I just suck at names and faces. Always have.

At some point soon I need to write my meta on "Why All Slash Writers Should Watch Verbotene Liebe". Because...they handled Christian's coming out and getting rid of Coco and hurt/comfort and all that so well, it should be a lesson to slashers everywhere :)

Tags: beps, news, politics, verbotene liebe, yael

07:20 pm: A little politics
It should be no surprise to anyone, but it's official now: Barack Obama is the official Democratic nominee for president.

::stares at that sentence:: I...maybe it's just my crazy hormones, but I find myself a bit choked up getting to write this. A nonwhite man is now one of the two major party candidates for president.

Gay people have married in a few states. A woman was nearly the Democratic candidate. A black man will be president, damn it. (I have to believe that or I'll go insane. Don't disabuse me of this, okay?)

I know we have so very very much to overcome, but can I--just for a moment--believe that we're getting there? That maybe we can do something about poverty? Maybe we can educate all of our children, even the ones who live in inner cities? Maybe we can teach all of our children that people of color and white people are really the same, that men and women are equal, that everyone should have a chance to be president or be a stay-at-home parent or be a doctor?

We can do this. To quote the next president of the United States: Yes, we can.

Tags: news, politics

04:11 pm: Ugh, take two
One-third of people reading CNN.com think it's fair to criticize Elizabeth Edwards for keeping her husband's affair secret. ::headdesk:: Right, because obviously the whole thing is her fault. Even given the obviously non-scientific nature of the poll, that pisses me off.

I was already feeling sick, but that didn't help. ::waves fists of rage::

Meanwhile it's 4:00 and I can't imagine how I'm going to get through the next three hours until Avi gets home. Ugh. It's only Tuesday, isn't it? Wah. I feel like serious crap and this is an improvement over this morning.

Tags: news, pregnancy

10:32 am: Links
As usual, Greta Christina brilliantly articulates something that bugs me: "People of Faith": Religion as Ethical Misdirection.

Ever since I started writing about atheism and religion, I've been troubled by the idea that being a strongly religious person, in and of itself, makes you a good person.

I've been troubled by the idea that phrases like "person of faith" or "man of God" are supposed to be understood to mean "good person." Pretty much by definition.

Well, there's a story in the news that's turning this irritation into a full-flown outrage. And it's making me realize what, exactly, it is about this trope that I find so troubling.

---

Also, I'm horribly depressed and saddened by the poor teacher featured in the NYT article A Teacher on the Front Line as Faith and Science Clash. ::sigh::

I just...I don't get it. I don't understand the need to ignore reality in favor of a book written by a bunch of dudes a long time ago. Why is having evolved from a common ancestor with apes a bad thing? It doesn't change anything about who we are now.

---

Reading the news is depressing. Why do I do it? ::headdesk:: Especially when reading anything makes me queasy. Ugh. Time to close my eyes again.

Tags: evolution, news, religion

09:53 pm: Fic must-read
::dies of joy:: I did not know it, but what I needed right now was an SGA/DCU crossover. I now know it's what I needed, because roga wrote And Then The Heroes Came Along and it is joy and love and happiness and hilarity. Okay, Batman and Superman end up in the Pegasus Galaxy. What could possibly be bad about this???

I...::flails:: Okay, I promised her more coherent feedback when I got back, but I find myself just as incoherent as I was when I read it the first time, so I'll just say again SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!! There are just too many fabulous lines for me to even try and quote a few I loved :)

Go. Read. Be happy.

Tags: rec

07:34 am: Morning stuff
Thank you to everyone who responded to yesterday's whining post. You've given me a lot to think about. ::hugs::

Sekrit msg for the Enterprise folks on my flist: Rodlox is asking questions at dwcanon_fodder. Remind me to stay far far away from DW fandom for a while :(

In better news, I actually got to see Dark Knight last night! Hooray! I don't really have the energy to write a proper review (typing and reading make me queasy, while action movies don't ::snort::) but I'm willing to bet I loved all the things y'all loved. Acting rocked, Lucius and Alfred continued to rule the universe, etc and so on.

One nonspoilery question about the movie, though: Where the heck is all the Batman/Joker fic coming from? Dude, I've got a well-worn pair of slash goggles and...no. Just no. On second thought, don't answer my question. Chances are good I don't want to know the answer.

Although now that I've seen the movie, now I can write musesfool's requested Lucius and Alfred fic. I even have an idea, I just need to work it out. If only typing didn't make me queasy...

Running away now.

Tags: batman, movie

01:50 pm: Happy chocolate note
OMG, these nonpareils are the best I've ever had. And the truffly things are coconut, which is pretty much my favoritest thing in the entire universe mixed with chocolate.

For the record, smittywing is a god among women. Seriously. I don't know if you're psychic or just have a good memory, but thank you thank you.

I'll just be over here with my chocolate. And no, you can't have any. Get your own. ::huddles over chocolate::

12:35 pm: Today rather had to be an improvement over yesterday, didn't it?
Love meme at medie's place! Please head on over and tell folks how much you love them, as well as asking for love yourself. I left love for some people, although I didn't get to everyone I know yet. I'll try to head back later when Ive gotten some rest and hit folks i missed. I'm a little brainless at the moment.

Anyway, I know I'm not the only person for whom 2008 is totally fired, so let's make it a little better for folks :)

Today's success is that the thrift store had a classic Radio Flyer trike for $15. It looks like it needs some love, but basically it's sound.

And in even better news, I've just learned that the house next door has finally sold! Even better, it's sold to a lovely woman and her babysitting-age daughter :) I've met them before and they seemed very nice. Having a child next door old enough to at least come help out is a comforting thought right at this moment, as you can imagine. I'm very very excited about this.

Oh, I'm taking nominations for nicknames for the two potential babies. (As in, the two embryos were Fred and George last time.) So far, my father's suggestion is Romulus and Remus, which I really really like. Any other ideas?

Tags: fandom, home, yael

08:32 am: Eureka question/looking for suggestions
( Cut for spoilers for I Do Over )

Tags: eureka

10:03 pm: Eureka instacomment
( Cut for spoilers )

Anyway, I'm typing this halfway through because Rachel called and Avi's stuck on the phone with her, so I've got the ep on pause. ::chews fingernails:: I'm gonna hang up on her in about ten seconds, I swear. ::chews fingernails more::

( Cut for spoilers )

Tags: eureka

08:19 pm: Mara is very shallow
::boggles:: Why did nobody tell me about Josh Bernstein, host of "Into the Unknown" on the Discovery Channel? He's hot. He's Jewish. He's on the the Discovery Channel.

That's pretty much the trifecta of awesome right there.

(And may I note that when I was in the market for a Jewish guy, I didn't meet any that looked like him. ::dies::)

This just adds to how much I love the Discovery Channel, what with Mike Rowe and the Mythbusters. Hotness and humor and explosions? Yep, I'm there.

And just when I was in a cranky mood, the Discovery Channel gives me the MacGuyver episode of the Mythbusters, which I've never seen. ::dies of happiness:: Seriously, I can't tell you how happy this makes me. "There comes a time when the student must challenge the master."

::goes off to watch::

(Oh, BTW, the elk steaks were incredibly tasty. Mmmm.)

Tags: television

03:46 pm: New icon and other weekend stuff
::points:: Thanks to azarsuerte pointing me in the right direction, I finally have my icon. ::is happy::

In other news, we went to the grocery store. Here are the foods my stomach considered edible: strawberries, cantaloupe, rice pudding, pizza, macaroni & cheese, whole wheat bread, and grape popsicles. ::snort:: Yup, that sounds like the morning sickness diet to me.

Avi and Yael have gone off to get my car washed. I should probably do something useful. Instead I think I'll lie on the couch.

::blink:: Avi just called to say that he found kosher elk at Koshermart. So...we're having elk for dinner. ::blinks some more:: Wow, I have no idea how to cook elk. This is going to require some research. Anybody know anything?

I'd better go clear off the table and the counter if we're going to actually cook something for dinner.

Tags: food, icons, pregancy