Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.

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Thursday, May 31st, 2012
panzerwalt	1:47a	( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. ) (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 30th, 2012
spasticat	11:34p	I used to be an art contender! Really! But with various diva drama issues I lost the confidence and even the muscle memory to draw well. Sometime I'll prove it to you all! ;) Kidding...the muscle memory is kinda there. The confidence is not. It *will* come back. Before my ski accident my sis and her hubs got me a Bamboo tablet to use for drawing on the computer. Then I did a flip on the mountain and got me a Rice Krispy arm and put the tablet aside for a very long time. I've sketched here and there. Even enjoyed the squiggly quality brought on by muscle spasms. I kid not. But the oomph, the bravado (bravada?) just hasn't been back for a very long time. Probably since way before the accident. Right now I'm just playing around with sketching while job searching. The following is not meant to illicit praise but it made me happy that I had an idea in my head about Loki from Avengers. Kinda New Yorker cartoonish. Quick strokes, just the essence of that quasi-weasely face (and, yes, I find that hot.) And it kinda sorta worked. There are other ideas. One involving a silhouette of John Reese from Person of Interest. Done up more solid than this watercolory sketch. Nope, it's not a good drawing...but it was fun to play around, y'know? This entry was originally posted at http://spasticat.dreamwidth.org/667277.html. Please comment there using OpenID. Comment count: (1 Comment |Comment on this)
crasch	5:48p	Ketamine Improves Bipolar Depression Within Minutes Originally published at craschworks. You can comment here or there. http://www.medicaldaily.com/news/20120530/10085/ketamin-bipolar-disorder-depression.htm “In this new study, they administered a single dose of ketamine and a single dose of placebo to a group of patients on two different days, two weeks apart. The patients were then carefully monitored and repeatedly completed ratings to ‘score’ their depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts. When the patients received ketamine, their depression symptoms significantly improved within 40 minutes, and remained improved over 3 days. Overall, 79% of the patients improved with ketamine, but 0% reported improvement when they received placebo. Importantly, and for the first time in a group of patients with bipolar depression, they also found that ketamine significantly reduced suicidal thoughts. These antisuicidal effects also occurred within one hour. Considering that bipolar disorder is one of the most lethal of all psychiatric disorders, these study findings could have a major impact on public health.” (Comment on this)
fourcorners	1:47p	Quotes "Always behave like a duck: keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath" - Jacob Braude "Money may not buy happiness, but I'd rather cry in a Jaguar than on a bus" - Francoise Sagan "Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals" - Fulton J. Sheen (Comment on this)
gwynraven	4:38p	Had nerve pain bad enough to keep me awake most of last night.  And it's pretty bad today too.  It's probably just a flare-up and the pain won't be constant at this level yet but even so, it's progressing a lot faster than the last tumor I had. If it keeps progressing at this rate I'll probably be back on the cane in 6 mo to a year.  Not cool.   And of course I'm immediately jumping to worst case scenarios cause that's what I do.  I was lucky that the last tumor was on a nerve branch that could be removed without major loss of function - I'm worried this one might be on a more essential section.   Current Mood: sore (6 Comments |Comment on this)
orbie	2:45p	Coffee on the Porch! Holy cow! It’s another video post! Two days in a row. It’s insane! How did that happen? Yes, another five minutes of my existence documented and disseminated to the electronic universe. The horror. The horror! Mirrored from Just Orb. (Comment on this)
lunaris1013	2:28p	Brians of Britain My Cubs are tied for the second-worst record in baseball. I knew they'd not be good this year, but this is downright painful. Is the season over yet?? (Feel free to remind me of this post when I'm whining about not having any baseball long about January.)   I hate when good plot bunnies snuggle up to bad writers. I've gone through these motions far too often lately: Read summary. Think, "oooh, this could be good!" Read about 200 words. Mourn lack of spellcheck, never mind beta reader and/or brit picker. Sigh. Close tab in abject disappointment. Sorta related: I have thoughts about engagement and marriage in slash fic. But I think those may get their own post.   Bruce Banner's arc reactor fetish. Just throwing that out there.   Still haven't gotten out to see Avengers again, what with going out of town and all. I've been told I have 16 hours of "personal business" time to burn at work before June 30. I think the liberal application of superheroes and bad-ass secret agents to my brain counts as personal business, right? So that's four afternoons off for four matinées.   Yes, I was out of town. I went to DC and was all touristy and stuff. And I got to see my dear trixiesfic, which I hadn't gotten to do since we stopped being roommates in 2003. Also too, I got to see PANDAS! </user> I went on said vacation with a non-fannish friend who I see about once per year. Scenes from my trip: As I read some particularly steamy John/Sherlock on my Kindle, "What are you reading?" Uhh... "Sherlock Holmes." As I break the silence by laughing at a ridiculous crossover gif set on Tumblr, "What's so funny?" Show her. Get blank look in return. "It would take an hour to explain. Trust me, it's fucking hilarious." As I giggle madly at the prominent placement of 50 Shades of Gray in an airport shop, "What's so funny?" Do I do a full explanation of fanfic in the security queue? No. "Have you heard of 'mommy porn..?'" As I try not to not be too obviously amused as I listen to Cabin Pressure on the flight home, "What in the world are you listening to?" "It's a British radio..." "Still?"* In conclusion, I would like to thank Tumblr for bringing to my attention the following: Jeremy Renner's arms Jeremy Renner's ass Jeremy Renner *She suffered through my very first bout of Anglophilia in the late 70s with the fourth Doctor and Dave Allen and Wodehouse Playhouse and The Duchess of Duke Street and Monty Python. Lots and lots of Monty Python. Leave a comment | comments Crossposted from Dreamwidth. You may comment there using OpenID
pegkerr	12:13p	How is it... that I had never heard of Calming Manatees until now?? This entry was originally posted at http://pegkerr.dreamwidth.org/1602692.html. There are comments on the post. (Comment on this)
orbie	12:00p	Yesterday’s Tweets Number one potential cause of divorce in a 21st century household? Inconsiderate living room electrical outlet usage (aka "hogging"). # How can it possibly only be Tuesday? I am already so far behind and so damned tired, surely … it must be Thursday. # Aside from doing something artsy-craftsy and making dinner, my only other mission today is to set up a safe charging area for my devices. # Word has gotten around that I have a working phone. I've been on it all morning. Boo! Hiss! # I'm going to make more coffee and go sit on my overly sunny porch sans phone and have some quiet time with my now-charged iPad. # The things I had to do today are mostly done or adequately put off. I will now be lazy until dinner time. See, not really a day off. :P # Can't decide what form my laziness should take. A movie or book, Skyrim, nap. A nap would be great, but it'd blow the whole afternoon. LOL! # Afternoon Laziness http://t.co/CXA1UvZg # Voting accomplished! See, I did do something useful and productive today after all! # Primary results trickling in so slowly. Faster! Faster! I don't want to go to bed 'til I know Lloyd Doggett made it to the general election. # U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett blazes to an early lead, and Romo concedes! Yippee! http://t.co/s58mfIyQ # This afternoon, I remembered I have wifi in the bedroom now, so my "fun" ended up being falling asleep while watching vintage Doctor Who. :D # It annoys me when cheaters get ahead, mostly because it makes me think I too should be cheating (or I'll never get ahead). # Mirrored from Just Orb. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 29th, 2012
pegkerr	5:50p	The Duel at Blood Creek Thanks to volkhvoi for this one. Great fun. This entry was originally posted at http://pegkerr.dreamwidth.org/1602312.html. There are comments on the post. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
sempereadem	6:23p	I discovered this weekend why I never had kids.  Because this long weekend taught me something.  If I have to tell the spawn one more time that wet towels do not get dropped and left in the middle of the living room floor, I will kill them and myself.  So I just wasn't cut out to parent, because I have absolutely no patience for that bullshit. That being said, my mother never had to remind me of things more than once or twice.  So I'm chalking it up to either the spawn are just stupid, which I know the boy is not at least; or the spawn are deliberately ignoring me, which is possible. I told them this weekend that the reason they think I'm bossy is because they don't listen and I have to repeat myself. And oh my word the girl spawn brought her new very young should-not-be-away-from-the-mother-yet kitten this weekend, and while I didn't mind it so much, the girl spawn is simply not prepared to take care of a kitten that young.  It doesn't help that her mother and grandmother treat animals like kleenex and don't vet them or train them or get them fixed.  I mean, I was having to explain simple things like, a kitten that young has to eat every few hours, not twice a day (!) which is how often it was being fed.  And that was part of the reason the poor thing was shrieking so much.  And that to get them to go in the litter box you have to wipe their bottoms with a warm washcloth, and that they need time to get coordinated and learn to walk and explore.  I was so furious, the girl spawn was treating the poor thing like a doll, and by the end of day 3 I had all but lost my patience. Yes, I know children like baby animals.  Especially girls.  But.  Yeah, just but. Oh, and the reason she brought the kitten in the first place?  Mom supposedly had to work all weekend and wouldn't have time to take care of it.  Funny, at the boy spawn's baseball banquet, we learned from the psycho half-brother that he and mom were actually going to be at future stepdad's house all weekend.  How's that for nice?  Lying to the kids?  You can't buy class like that.  The boy spawn was very much not pleased and more than a little upset. Yet their father is going to hell because he drinks beer. I guess I'm just stupid and overly optimistic that the kids would actually pay attention to things like not piling all of their belongings in the middle of the floor...after being told by myself AND their father...I asked them if they do the same thing at home and they swear they don't, so what the hell?  I know they are kids, and kids are kids, and kids are absent-minded and whatnot... But just damn.  I obviously was not gifted with any kind of maternal patience, nor do I relish playing stepnfetchit after a couple of little slobs. So this is obviously all me, and not the fact that dad doesn't make them mind him either.  *sigh* Current Mood: exhausted (1 Comment |Comment on this)
eyelid	5:20p	syria The Syrian government continues its reign of terror, murdering 108 civilians (including children) this weekend. "By God, I washed the dead bodies of nine children. One was less than 9 months old!" a man screamed to a U.N. observer. "Why are they treating us like animals? We are humans. Did the infant carry an RPG? Was he a fighter? It was a baby, he had a pacifier in his mouth." It's obvious that Assad and his axe-murderers (literally, they have been killing people, including children, with axes) are horrific and should not be in power, or indeed alive. But I'm not sure what can or should be done by anyone outside Syria. The Syrian government has been remonstrated with by all sides, and has replied "go fuck yourselves." It simply denies its massacres and refuses to stop them. It is obviously not going to step down or stop the slaughter no matter what anyone says. So the question becomes whether it's a good idea for "someone" to step in with military force. And if so, who. (23 Comments |Comment on this)
orbie	3:39p	Afternoon Laziness </p> Mirrored from Just Orb. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
eyelid	1:40p	anniversary This weekend was our 11th wedding anniversary. I like the number 11. I always think that the next milestone w/r/t anniversaries is so impressive; then we get there, and it doesn't seem very impressive at all ;) In our families, 11 yrs is still a baby marriage. Patrick says this is our steel anniversary. Our friend Kris gave us a cracked elephant teapot that appears to be made of some kind of metal, which she picked up off the side of the road. This is the sort of gift that we all find amusing. Actually it is kind of a cool-looking elephant. This entry is so matter-of-fact; I feel like I should be more lyrical, but you have to understand, I am Minnesotan. Less is more. The fancier you get, the more skeptical I am that you actually mean it. We are married and that really says it all, because we wouldn't stay married otherwise. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
orbie	12:09p	Coffee on the Porch! Everyone freak out! I’ve made a new video blog post! It must be the end of the world! OK, it’s nothing terribly exciting. Mostly, I was sitting in the porch with my iPad sweating and being bored and thought I would give it a try. Worked well, I think. Now all I have to do is overcome my stage fright and maybe come up with something interesting to talk about next time. If there IS a next time. LOL! Mirrored from Just Orb. (Comment on this)
orbie	12:00p	Yesterday’s Tweets Have only been awake for an hour, and already I feel overwhelmed by the entirety of my existence. # The last update to the iOS WordPress app has broken my ability to upload photos to my blog from my iPad. This is not alleviating my stress. # And now it's way past time for my first cup of coffee and a bit of a break. Porch, here I come! # Beautiful day in the neighborhood! http://t.co/4gqt2uGw # The birds seem happy we mowed the yard. Better bug hunting! The cats are not so happy about it. Nowhere to hide to stalk the birds. LOL! # GABRIEL’S JOURNEY, complete scifi-adventure trilogy by @SteveUmstead for #iBooks on sale for $5.99! http://t.co/DGvYQN74 # Getting caught up reading my friends' Livejournal posts for the last few weeks. This isn't what I should be doing, but I'm doing it anyway. # Hate when I forget I'm doing laundry! I could have been done right this minute, but no, now I still have two loads to do. ::grumble, grunt:: # Don't know what's for dinner, but there's a peach, mango, strawberry cobbler in the oven. Obviously, my priorities are in the right place! # At some point during the last 10 hours, a new Lloyd Doggett sign has appeared in my front yard! It's magic! ::happy dance:: # Have decided on sloppy joes and oven fries for dinner. Seems the quickest way to get to the peach/mango/strawberry cobbler. # It's amazing how my mom and I had not one argument while emailing, texting, and chatting on our iPads, but first phone call … argument. # Mirrored from Just Orb. (Comment on this)
dyanearden	12:00p	My tweets Tue, 09:53: Daily Duckie:"Seriously, sometimes I'm not usual." (1 Comment |Comment on this)
crasch	3:35a	29/31 by Garfunkel and Oates Originally published at craschworks. You can comment here or there. (Comment on this)
crasch	12:52a	Base rate fallacy dooms TSA’s risk-based screening Originally published at craschworks. You can comment here or there. Base rate fallacy dooms TSA’s risk-based screening “Risk-based screening, if it describes any partitioning of airline passengers at checkpoints, is a fraud. It doesn’t matter what the criteria are for putting passengers into low-risk and high-risk categories, because the concept is mathematically unsound. The base rate fallacy is the failure to account for underlying incidence of the condition being tested for. Imagine this hypothetical (and completely fantastical) scenario: that the TSA employs a near-perfect test for risk-based screening, a test that always flags terrorists if they are present and only flags innocent people 1 time out of 10,000. (The TSA’s actual success rate at flagging known terrorists is zero.) Under these conditions, only one out of every five million people flagged would be a terrorist. This is the base rate fallacy in operation. In other words, for all intents and purposes, every flagged person is a false positive.” (Comment on this)
Monday, May 28th, 2012
manintheboat	11:32p	In which I tell a "Your Mom" joke unintentionally I asked randomdreams, "So your mom eats sausage right?" *realized what I said, died laughing* So funny. (I wanted to know if we could go to a Polish restaurant on Wednesday) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
manintheboat	10:16p	For the birds I was out watering the yard yesterday and heard the birds making noises I hadn't heard before. "What in the hell are they talking about?" I thought. I went to over to that corner of my yard and found that my Red Mulberry tree had fruited. It has been a few years since it has fruited so I was pretty excited. Mulberries are awesome. I ate a few fistfulls and went to find randomdreams. We filled the bowl with enough to make pancakes the next morning. Today we went out and ate some more. Should be a few days left. Mulberries are medium sized trees and we only get the low fruit, the birds get the rest. The green fruits are reputedly hallucinogenic, but I haven't tried. Urban foraging is one of my favorite hobbies. The Floral Shop at the end of the block has 2 cherry trees LOADED with sour cherries. Part of one of the trees hangs over the church property. We knocked on the florist's door to ask permission to pick the cherries but they weren't in so we just picked cherries from the church side. We pulled about 3lbs off and didn't even make a dent. It took me about an episode of RadioLab (Guts) to pit all the cherries, they are cooking down now into jam which we will have with fresh goat cheese and warm bread for a midnight snack. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
orbie	12:00p	Yesterday’s Tweets I'm amazed by the number of future home owners who seem to think hardwood floors clean themselves. "They don't stay clean!" Um … duh? # Some time in the very recent past, our Lloyd Doggett sign disappeared from our front yard. >:[ # Tonight's potential menu: meatloaf, savory bread pudding, and cow peas with kale. # I'm so sad there's only one more episode in this season of Game of Thrones! Waaaaaah! # Today we got the wild prairie known as our yard somewhat under control. Well, mostly Lin did, but I helped. :) # It feels like time for bed. I have a lot of stuff to get done tomorrow, as I do every damn Monday. :P # Mirrored from Just Orb. (Comment on this)
spasticat	10:15a	In the US it's Memorial Day and I'm off to the parent's for the traditional grilling of meats. original tea rose photo found via flickr's creative commons license search In addition to honoring those who have died serving in the US armed forces I'd like to also remember fanfic authors and fans who have passed away. People like thamaris, tenebraeli, and most especially minitrog. We miss you. This entry was originally posted at http://spasticat.dreamwidth.org/666785.html. Please comment there using OpenID. Comment count: (4 Comments |Comment on this)
orbie	8:51a	Food Porn! It’s been sort of busy around Casa de Orb the last several days, so there have been sandwiches and pizza for dinner a couple times … and even one night we had takeout … so not a lot of interesting photos, but here are the two I took. Stir fried spicy turkey sausage with rice, kale, mushrooms, zucchini, onion and garlic. Simple, fast, and tasty. Latest night’s dinner was a bit of a production. I tried something new! My usual feta and onion meatloaf, cowpeas (aka black eyed peas or field peas) with sautéed kale, and a savory bread pudding with mushrooms, onion, and zucchini. This was my first attempt at any kind of bread pudding, and it was very, very tasty! Mirrored from Just Orb. (Comment on this)
orbie	9:48a	DCC Week One! And so week one of my Decluttering Creativity Challenge begins. This week’s collection of stuff from the craft junk pile is an odd mix. At the moment, I have no idea what I am going to do with any of it, but then, it’s Monday morning, and I haven’t even had any coffee yet. Maybe something will come to me as the day (or week) goes on.† Also begun? The anticipated whining, crying, and gnashing of teeth. Started last night when I was grabbing stuff off the top of the pile to put into this week’s collection. I’m sure once the habit of doing something with one small box or bag of crafty crap is ingrained into my routine, the whining will subside (though likely never entirely vanish). LOL! Footnotes † Not entirely true. I have ideas for the felt scraps, because I ALWAYS have ideas for felt scraps. The rest of the stuff though? No ideas! [↩] Mirrored from Just Orb. (Comment on this)

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