Wondrous Apparitions, Provided by Magicians.

First off, I have re-done my entire livejournal in giant squid. No reason, I just like giant squid. I thought you should know.

Second, when we got home last night, triadruid and I discovered that the toilet in the downstairs bathroom had overflowethed its cup, and the entire bathroom was in standing water. Luckily, zylch, who was there for birthday celebrations, captained a recovery effort that was both very effective and mildly disgusting. A dehumidifier was purchased, and the toilet was stopped from running by the method of turning off the water to the tank, so the immediate crisis has been overcome. I'm thinking of tearing the toilet and sink cabinet out of that bathroom and converting it to a closet. zylch was also instrumental in the planning of that project, so that I feel like it might be doable, if she and diermuid (the other master of toilets in our acquaintance) would assist.

Having solved the toilet problem to the best of our ability, we washed up and went out for sushi, which seemed like the only logical response. The sushi was good enough to largely make up for the horror of the previous hour, so all was well.

Then, kittenpants, triadruid and I went to MicroCenter, so that she could buy him a birthday present and both of us early Yule gifts. Unfortunately, we had taken so long at the toilet problem and the sushi that we really didn't have time to dig into anything. I, being a simple creature and easily distracted by shiny gadgetry, got an iPod. triadruid's gifts are still under consideration. I'm lobbying for him to upgrade his PC.

And then! When we got home, I went to download iTunes so that I could use that shiny new iPod, and discovered that technology has moved on and left me behind. Any version of iTunes new enough to work with the iPod that I got is also new enough that it will not install on my Windows 2000 box. It checks the operating system before installing, and then shuts down. I can get iTunes 7.3.2 for the 2000 box, but the iPod wants at least 7.4. I'm hoping one of you clever individuals knows a way around this problem, because I'm not keen on installing an OS that I don't want just so I can use the toy that I do want. kittenpants has the proper iTunes installed on her XP laptop, but was of the opinion that I wouldn't be able to just use that because the program was keyed to work with only one iPod. I don't know if that's true, having never messed with any of this Apple stuff, and didn't have time to test it last night, so input on that is welcomed also.

I know it must be that time of the year again, because my receptionist started playing Christmas music yesterday. Therefore, I present the Winter Avarice List Meme, resurrected from the ashes of last year.

The Rules: Also Yclept Howe Thou Dost It Without Making Fail.
Make a post that contains your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fun ("I'd love a Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.
- If you wish for real possible things, make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.
- Also, you might post some version of these guidelines in your LJ so that the holiday joy will spread.

The List
All I want for the festival of Winter Avarice (and good cheer) is:( Don't you want to know? )
For Comparative Purposes, What I Listed Last Year, With Commentary( Read more... )

Did I start on NaNoWriMo yesterday? Yes.
Did I get any actual writing of any actual novel done? No.
I did get most of the pre-writing done (i.e. decided what the story is about, made some background notes, made some decisions about who was going to be in the story, all that stuff that you're apparently supposed to do in October), though, so I'm counting that as a successful start.

Did I find the best yule present ever for triadruid today, while looking for something completely different? Yes.
Can I actually acquire the thing in question? No, apparently.
The company that makes it has either gone out of business and/or ceased to pay their hosting fees, and the only retailers that might have carried it are small shops in the U.K. I'm gonna keep looking, though.

To His Grace, Darren H., Duke of Parma:

We received your missive yesterday afternoon with much joy and gratitude and are looking forward to the day when we might employ the information contained. Please accept our thanks and the highest compliments of our meager court. The Baron is fortunate indeed to have such an able and honourable fellow as yourself in his employ.

With warmest regard,
featherynscale
* * * * *

I intended to make up a grand flourishing name for myself in the above note, but my brain doesn't seem to have any gender-neutral titles in it other than Dr. and Rev., and neither of those seem appropriate for the circumstances. The grand flourishing name does not work without a title. Curse you, European history.
* * * * *

Election day was so unreal to me yesterday that I didn't even check the results until this morning, and I am, as a rule, a compulsive election clicker. As it turns out, our guy will not be the next Mayor, which is sort of a bummer, but I figure the other guy is okay too. They were the two best of a weird lot. And, they didn't vote back in the local rep who keeps getting indicted for fraud and then claiming that she wasn't aware she was defrauding people. So that's something.
EDIT: Or not. The paper is calling the mayoral race opposite to what I read from the election board this morning. So who can say, really?
* * * * *

Lois McMaster Bujold, although initially very compelling to me, has fallen off of my list of authors to be excited about new releases from. I just finished the first volume of her new series, and I'm disappointed. You sold me a romance, lady! Not that it wasn't a well-written romance, as these things go, but still. I'm looking for great, world-altering drama, and the biggest challenges Our Heros faced was a one-shot monster and a bunch of farmboys who try to run off a foreign suitor. Booooo-rrring.
* * * * *

Tonight I have no meetings to attend, no classes to teach, no particular obligations. (Well, I have to be around to take a phone call, but that's it.) Holy crap, people, I might get some laundry done.

I'm having a conversation with lexpendragon about "stuff". How much stuff do you need? How much do you have around even though you don't need it? I'm in a pretty loose phase about stuff right now. My general tendency is to minimize the stuff, but at the moment, I'm living in a house that also serves as a prop and costume closet, a working art and jewelry studio, and a gathering-place for several groups. This all contributes to a vastly increased level of 'stuff' about. Still, I do the best I can. (Note: I never count books in my considerations of stuff I don't need. All books automatically make the cut.)

One of the places that I fall down in my quest to minimize the useless stuff is with gifts. Of course, people give you things that you wouldn't buy yourself. That's the whole point of gifts. And many people give me things that fit very well into my concept of things I need or can use, which is great. On the other hand, some people, notably my mother, give me lots of 'home decor' sorts of knick-knacky things, which aren't really good for anything, except making the place look nice, and even if you count that as useful (I waver on the subject), there's only so much stuff you can have out making the place look nice before the trick begins to backfire, and the place begins to look cluttered.

And once someone gives me a thing, I keep it. I will keep it forever (or until I can't remember who gave it to me, which is Like The Same Thing), in large part because I don't want to hurt the feelings of the person who gave it to me. Or because it makes me think of the person who gave it to me. Either way, it's there, and I will never get rid of it.

Also, I am told on a regular basis that my model of what is and is not offensive to other people is way off the mark most of the time. If that's true, it may be true that getting rid of gifts is not necessarily going to offend people at all. Hence the poll. Please drop a vote, if you would. Also, obviously, the answers are somewhat broader categories than they may seem, and still cannot possibly cover the entire realm of human behavior, so I would deeply appreciate it if people who wished to vote would choose the response closest to their actual feelings on the subject. Thanks.
( On to the clicky part! )

Whiny goth post demands whiny goth icon. Sadly, I have no such icon, so poor William's troubles will have to suffice. This is your disclaimer.
( In which my brain hates me. )

On the upside, I've managed to train Pandora to produce a pretty reliable mix of dark cabaret, pseudo-nostalgia tunes, and neofolk, which makes me happy. Instrumental in this development have been the folks over at sepiachord, who regularly post very yummy playlists. Also, I'm wearing a gift from zianuray, a very nice blend from Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs called Miskatonic University -- all coffee and irish cream and deep wood. It's delightful. I have some hope that I can shake my brain back into some sort of useful functionality by the end of the day. Let's find out.

Don't look at me. capriciouslass started it.

Make a post that contains your list of 10 holiday wishes. The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fun ("I'd love a Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.
- If you wish for real possible things, make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where Santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you.
- Also, you might post some version of these guidelines in your LJ so that the holiday joy will spread.

( My list )

It's slow at the office today and I am revelling in that slowness, since the next few days are going to be Utterly Batshit Insane. One of the things I'm working on is a gift list for this year's Season of Winter Avarice. I know, it's not Halloween yet, but since I'm doing Winter Bazaar, I'm essentially giving up a few weeks of "official" shopping time, so it seemed reasonable to make it up on the front end. Increases the chances that people will actually get the prezzies from me on or before the winter holiday that they actually celebrate.

So, I'm digging through Amazon, looking for wishlists for the people on my gift list. Every once in a while, I turn up someone with a common enough name that there are several possibilities as to which list is actually their list, but it's easy enough to pick the right one, or determine that my person actually doesn't have a wishlist. Best example so far: putting in biscuitgod's name returned one list full of books for the Mormon family, one list full of books about the military, and one list full of diet and bodybuilding books. I'm guessing none of those are him. :)

Also, sometime next month, I was thinking of starting the Second Annual Wild-Ass Gift Exchange again (it needs a clever name!). It worked out pretty well last year, with only one person failing to send a gift like they were supposed to. That person knows who he is and will suffer eternal shame and finger-pointing, and is Banned from future gift exchanges, unless his lady will vouch for him and pick up his slack. So there. :-P

As it turns out, Fathers' Day is next week. While this does not incur the level of challenge and or anxiety of say, Winter Avarice, it does present some issues. And it's complicated. You see, I'm a magician more or less by nature as well as by practice. I have a long memory for trivia and a tendency to view everything as not only the thing itself, but also as a symbol of other things. As such, giving good gifts is one of the talents I've developed and one of the standards of behavior I expect myself to meet. A good gift is, IMHO, appropriate, wanted, relevant to the trivia of a recipient's life, not a repeat of past gifts, and also a conveyor of the right symbolic message and resonance.
( An example, about flowers )
( The current conundrum )
( The inevitable part of the entry that is about sex )

While I was perusing chronarchy's Amazon wishlist today, I noticed that they now have a feature that allows you to make wishlists semi-private. And I went "Yay! Now I can tell my friends to buy me things I don't want my grandmother to see!". And I made one. But then I discovered that while the new lists are not searchable, once someone searches an existing list for you, and finds the public list, they can then see the other list on the side of the page. So that's not helpful, Amazon! However can I get my friends to buy me pornography, philosophy and world religious texts now?

*sigh*