serinde

syringavulgaris: First, there was the EA booth babe stupidity which I now realize is hyping Dante's Inferno.
syringavulgaris: Because the sin and the lust and the what not.
syringavulgaris: Then I actually looked at the description of the game.
syringavulgaris: I have no mouth and I must scream.
elibalin: I read L'Inferno. I do not recall any point at which anyone went nuts with a giant axe.
syringavulgaris: As you say.
syringavulgaris: AND THEY ARE OPTING IT FOR A FILM.
syringavulgaris: That noise you heard? That was a whole raft of lit majors exploding.
elibalin: I bet I know who's slated to direct!
syringavulgaris: noooooooooooooo
elibalin: Jaaaaaaaaaaaa!
syringavulgaris: Oh, and that's not an axe, it's a scythe.
syringavulgaris: He killed the Grim Reaper and took his stuff.
syringavulgaris: Even typing these words, I feel my IQ drop.
elibalin: I am looking at this image and wondering which obscure Florentine politico the guy on the right is supposed to be.
elibalin: "After ripping off the head of a living ship while crossing one of the main rivers of hell, causing the boat to crash, you make your way up the sheer face of a pair of trembling mountainous columns and sprint across a crumbling bridge that's collapsing behind you. At quite literally the last moment, you make a final desperate leap to safety, attach yourself to a wall, and then drop to the ground to enjoy a moment's rest. With whatever breath remains in your lungs, you continue on your quest, circling down into another hellish dungeon where, after kicking the door down and readying your weapon, you prepare to meet your foe. From a fiery furnace a few feet away, it emerges: a small, monstrous infant with long curved blades where its hands used to be. Worse yet, it's not alone; soon the lone menacing demon-child is joined by another, and another, and still more. You grip your weapon and prepare for the worst. And this is just the first layer of hell. "
elibalin: Yep, that's what I think of when I think of unbaptized infants and virtuous pagans.

I returned this evening from the podiatrist, who judges that I have plantar fasciitis. Short form if you are suffering TL;DR: the connective stuff on the bottom of my (left) foot? It's inflamed and sad. This happens if you run, if you're overweight, if you're female, if you lug heavy stuff around, and if you wear high-heels or flip-flops (any shoes without arch support, basically). OH GOSH WELL I DON'T DO ANY OF THAT

So. I am to take ibuprofen for a week, and I am to ice the sad bit 2 or 3 times per day. I am to do stretching exercises[1]. I am not to run. I am to try and keep off it, and not do things that bother it. And I am to wear sensible shoes with arch support. IN SUMMER. kill stab hate kill

I am feeling whiny and oppressed; and also, if packing extra poundage contributes, how am I gonna lose it if I have to keep off my feet?! (The college pool is open, but I find laps so unspeakably tedious I can't stick to them... On sweh's advice I am looking into waterproof MP3 players, which would tidily solve my problem, but they seem to be much expense for low functionality.)

[1] One of the primary causes is tightness in the Achilles tendon and hamstrings. Yoga for almost a year? And I still have tightness there? what does it take

[Your humble correspondent returns from a meeting to see the baleful red eye of the voicemail glaring at her from her desk phone. She curses, and plays the message.]
Random Git's Message: Hi, this is Foo Bar. Can someone there please call me back. X12345 *click*
Your Humble Correspondent: Because what we love is some context in our messages. *dials number*
YHC: Hi, this is {me}, I received your message asking for a call?
RG: Yes!
YHC: ...so...what can I do for you? [1]
RG: Oh! I didn't...but...Maybe I have the wrong person.
YHC: ...............
RG: Are you in charge of the help desk?
YHC: I am in charge of the student help desk, yes.
RG: But for CUNYfirst? [2]
YHC: No, that's being handled by the Faculty/Staff help desk.
RG: So you're the wrong person?
YHC: . o O ( FOR WHAT? ) ....So it would seem.
RG: OK thanks *click*

[1] At this point I am assuming that it's some HR nonsense, as I happened to recognize the person's name as someone who works up there, not that she's actually said anything indicative yet.
[2]This is the big huge university-wide ERP implementation that's being slowly rolled out in stages, rather like successive biblical plagues.

I've spent most of the (still possibly insufficient, but at least greater) time at home recently nibbling at the This Is Not How I Want It problem. The chief process has been organizing the stuff that needs to go out, each according to its kind: this bag is for arkham1010, that one for elibalin, the monitor for nedlnthred's parents is in the corner, etc.; and then there is the large (and still growing) quantity of Stuff which is destined for donation.

Grump #1: the NYPL branch around the corner isn't taking book donations at the moment, because that would've been far too convenient. I shall have to schlep all the books I'm ditching up to either the branch at 78th and York, or to Housing Works at 77th and Third. Blarg.

Then, yesterday evening, I was seized by the urge to do furniture rearranging NAO NAO NAO, and so I did that thing. This involved unloading the bookshelves so I could move them, which opportunity I seized for more culling and a bit of reorganization. There was also a slight mishap involving another unit of furniture. I put it back together. ALL IS WELL, CITIZEN. Anyways, now the bookshelves are where the futon was, the futon is facing the fire escape window, and the smaller shelf unit with all my DVDs and some CDs on it is next to the kitchen work bench; but that is a temporary location, as I can now put an armchair there (if it isn't too large) and there can be actual seated comfortable conversation in the living room. It's also generally more pleasant and inviting, and I think I'm more likely to actually sit on the futon now.

Problems still staring balefully at me include:
1. Armchair + futon does not exactly a dinner party make. I can get a small table or something to put in the middle, but it's not sitting to dinner, you know? More like having noshies at a comfortable bar. Or am I holding on too tight?

2. I am not sure it works for gaming, either. Though it might do.

3. I would really like to put an end table next to the futon, but I think if I do, I won't be able to open the fridge.

4. The TV problem has not been addressed at all. I had a vague notion I could set things up so I could leave the iMac on my desk and just rotate it, to watch DVDs in comfort from the living room[1]; but it's just not going to work. And the way I have rearranged now[2], the focal point for a TV screen would be...attaching it to the window. Um.

5. Though I excised another large sack of books, and it let me put some more things on shelves instead of having them in piles, it's still not enough. I think I just don't want another bookshelf in here[3], and that means I have to live with what I've got, and argh. Well, if our house sale goes through next month, I can advance the eBook Solution.

But, in general, I look upon my work and find it Good. I can hang Dad's clan map of Scotland where the bookshelves were before, even. Now all of you people taking stuff of me PLEASE COME GET IT kthxbye.

[1] which still doesn't address the XBox issue, but it might do for the moment.
[2] I have one more shot in my locker, which involves putting the futon at a 30 degree angle, but I'm not sure it'll work, and I can't try it until more stuff goes away.
[3] except I'm going to have a small one in the bedroom for pr0n tasteful erotica, I think

Back to running today. 4 min. warmup, 21 min. running--of which I amped up .5 mph for the last third of it--, 5 min. cooldown. The effect of the amping-up was somewhat drastic; I came much closer to overheating, and am much more tired than I would otherwise be. Other than that, though, I found it entirely delightful and joyous. My various traitor body parts seem to be holding up well, too.

I want to curl up in the sun and snooze now.

...is irony, it would seem. I have just heard a contest announced over the airwaves, in which one can win a trip to,

wait for it,

Cleveland.

erinfinnegan and froglartbge's press event tonight made it to Gothamist! FAME AND NOTORIETY

I'd like to take this moment to appreciate Ranger (pictured in icon), who, although being legendary for his wide-eyed brainlessness--Steve was wont to call him the Beautiful Loser--, has scrupulously observed cat box protocols through multiple relocations of domicile as well as of box location.

nedlnthred and I had a scientifically-generated plan to go down to Asbury Park the day after the local Springsteen show, poke around, see what it was like. (And maybe, if we were super super lucky, he would drop in to play at one of the local clubs, as he is occasionally known to do...) So we did this thing yesterday. We got a late-ish start, were further delayed by major accidents, etc. etc., but finally rolled into town around 1:30pm.

I should back up to note that I have been to Asbury Park once before. It was, hm, maybe 7 years ago; we were invited to a party of a particular kind, so the redheads and I tootled down, and lordy, were we appalled. The hotel the party was in was clearly a classic establishment from the shore glory days, but the room we entered into had indelible marker on the walls, a used condom in the sheets, and a dead mouse under the bed. (And that was before the party started.) The beachfront was all run-down and almost entirely closed. We survived, we escaped, and the experience passed into legend. Although I had vaguely heard that, in the interim, the town had become something of a gay mecca, my expectations were for an entertainingly trashy kind of day.

Thus, I was pretty surprised to find that the place (well, at least the boardwalk portion) is entirely under a makeover. The beautiful old arcades on either end are being refurbished and cleaned up without being torn down and replaced with something appalling; the burnt-out abandoned buildings have been torn down, and new shops are being built; and the vendors they've rounded up are artisans, not the Usual Beach Crap. We had a long chat with a fellow who runs a pottery shop, and he was telling us that the corporation masterminding the whole affair figures this way: every town along the Jersey Shore, nearly, is aimed at families and emphasizes quantity/low cost over quality. They aren't going to be able to drag that demographic away from whatever its normal vacation spot is, so instead, they're aiming at the singles or dual-income with disposable income. So: fine dining, good cocktails, cute or quaint or artsy shops, and an emphasis on classy. It's clearly still very much a work in progress, but I quite like what they've done so far. (And I'm happy to say they do not seem to have meddled with the music venues at all. So, not your usual mode of gentrification which gets rid of anything that does not conform.)

I do wonder what the locals think of all this.

We also stumbled upon an event at the Stone Pony, being thrown in cooperation with the only non-shitty commercial radio station in NYC. It wasn't a big whoop--there was cheap bad beer (but at least you could get decent bottles, if for $5) and chili dogs and a giant inflatable King Kong--but they had local bands playing, and the one we stuck around for was not bad. I understand it was supposed to get much more lively around 7 or 8 (and if we were going to see The Bruce, that probably would have been when)--but Beth needed to get further down shore to meet her family and I needed to embark on the 1 hour 45 minute train pilgrimage back to the city, so we missed all that. But, anyways, a lovely day all around.

I didn't pack a lunch today, and was intending to just eat a Curry Inna Packet or something, but spride persuaded me out to get Indian takeaway from a place I'd noticed close to my apartment, which I'd wanted to try therefore; so I ditched yoga (it was going to half be end-of-semester tea-and-cookies anyways) and walked out. I admit the beautiful day had something to do with it, too.

However, we did not make it as far as the takeaway, instead being sucked into the gravity well of the Nanoosh Mediterranean Hummus Bar, which I had also taken note of. It is as good as it sounded. I got Hummus Chicken, which is hummus with some grilled spiced chicken and onions and a dollop of tahini in the middle, and also two beautiful, fluffy, warm, delicious pitas with which to manage your glorp. I had more than sufficient to take back half for tomorrow's lunch. I can also say that the mint iced tea was refreshing and nice; "lightly sweetened" as described. All of this was not cheap, but it was awfully good. And it's less than a five minute walk from my front door. <3

I really want to go back for the rice pudding with cardamom.