understandascope

yiskah @ 2009-10-23T15:15:00

2009-10-23T12:18:36Z

I have no idea what to post about on LJ at the moment (everything seems to involve too much background and context), and am having a slow Friday (day-off plans foiled by ill couchsurfer, though I may go out shortly to read a book in a cafe or similar), so I am going to do this meme. I always assume that everyone knows everything about me, but maybe you don't.

The problem with LJ: We all think we are so close, but really we know nothing about one another. So I want you to ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away. Then post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

Have at it!

Hm, I will even make this post public, so that you can ASK ANONYMOUSLY if you want. Don't be evil though.

Transliteration fail

2009-05-04T10:57:12Z

I have spent the last day or so uploading all my Morocco/Western Sahara pics to Flickr (I'm hypermobility there, as I imagine you all know). I still intend (...vaguely) to do a more substantive "and then I did..." post here about my most recent travels, but for now I am just going to share my favourite photo, from Taroudannt:

I do hope they teach you how to escape from a police chase, possibly while driving through grocery stands and scattering fruit all over the road, leaving the enraged stallholder shaking his fist in your wake. That's the sort of auto instruction I could really get behind.

yiskah @ 2009-05-01T18:17:00

2009-05-01T17:19:56Z

But look, what is the POINT of Dreamwidth? Why is it good? And what on earth does its name mean?

I don't mean to piss on everyone's bonfires, but isn't this just like a few years ago when everyone got Vox accounts and then promptly forgot about them?

iTunes/iPod question

2009-03-15T21:48:48Z

Techie friends: is there any way to set things up so that your iPod doesn't automatically sync with iTunes when you plug it into your computer?

(Background: I have foolishly packed my iPod charger into storage, am travelling with my laptop so could conceivably charge iPod from laptop, but am travelling without my external harddrive on which all my music is stored, hence if I plug iPod into laptop while external drive is unconnected, I run the risk of wiping the iPod. I think.)

Right then.

2009-02-13T10:34:00Z

Friday the 13th today, Valentine's Day tomorrow: seems like a perfect opportunity for anonymous comments!

Have at it, chaps, but keep it kind.

Bandwagon

2009-01-31T00:21:17Z

yiskah @ 2009-01-23T17:12:00

2009-01-23T17:13:06Z

(via spittingkittens)

Every time I think I couldn't love Obama any more, he proves me wrong.

yiskah @ 2009-01-23T13:44:00

2009-01-23T13:44:58Z

Does it make me childish that I always snigger to myself when opening post from one of our contractors, whose company is called Cumloaden?

I also just misread "Petersburn" as "Petersbum".

Birthday(s)!

2009-01-07T11:09:23Z

Happy birthday wonderlanded, and happy belated birthday chiasmata!

xxx

yiskah @ 2008-12-24T11:13:00

2008-12-24T11:13:35Z

Christmas eve at work. So bored. The phone has rung all of three times this morning, and there isn't even any post for me to sort through. I am amusing myself by reading fanfic in fandoms I don't understand. Yay!

For those of you who are similarly bored, anonymous commenting is on. Tell me things, make up stories, whatever. Have at it!

yiskah @ 2008-12-22T17:03:00

2008-12-22T17:04:18Z

If you were my glasses, where would you be?

(They're not on my head; I've checked.)

yiskah @ 2008-12-12T11:13:00

2008-12-12T11:13:03Z

Happy birthday to two of my most favourite people, chiller and jinxremoving!

xxx

Because there's a lot of it about...

2008-12-08T15:18:56Z

View Poll: #1311587

In more serious news...

2008-11-25T16:11:15Z

I'm posting this because it's worth a try.

In early October, one of my good friends from university, P., fell (or may have been pushed) down a flight of concrete steps in Johannesburg, and his his head. He had a severe brain bleed, and has been in a coma ever since. No one seems sure of what his chances of recovery are. During the time he's been in hospital, his family has become concerned about the level of care he's been getting in South Africa (as an example, he has been on and off a ventilator, and the hospital he's in only has eight of them, so should he need to be on a ventilator again he would have to stand in line). P. has dual nationality (Zimbabwean and British), his mother is English, and she wants to transport him back to the UK so that he can get better care at the Royal Surrey Hospital. The problem with this is the price - the cheapest quote she's received (for transportation on a commercial flight, with oxygen) is 345,000 Rand. P.'s mother is currently short £5,000 to have him transported, and ideally his friend would like to raise a bit more than that if possible, as she's having to deplete her pension fund to pay for this.

Given my current straitened circumstances, I can't donate very much myself, but I thought I would help to do my bit by spreading the word as far and wide as possible, just in case anyone fancied helping out. Obviously there is no pressure at all! The family needs the money ASAP, and so is asking for contributions by direct bank transfer, into either a South African account or a UK account. I'm obviously not going to share the details in a public post, but am screening comments so, if you're interested in donating, do comment and I'll give you the bank details.

It's this sort of thing that really puts my puny little problems into perspective.

yiskah @ 2008-11-24T12:46:00

2008-11-24T12:45:22Z

Happy birthday to the magnificent biascut!

Out of genuine curiosity...

2008-11-05T23:08:00Z

...because it's something I've seen a lot, both on the internet and in the television coverage of the US election: could the election of an individual like Barack Obama only happen in America? What do people think?

G'day!

2008-10-24T10:47:07Z

Christ, this just made me WEEP with laughter.

Warning 1: Really NSFW.
Warning 2: Possibly incomprehensible to those unlikely to recognise an icon of 1980/90s Australian television.

Backing away from YouTube, now.

Friday nostalgia

2008-10-24T10:33:58Z

In happier news, though, I have temp work Monday to Wednesday, and maybe Thursday next week, so hurrah! Income, no matter how paltry! Things to do other than endlessly refresh email and job sites!

I've just been reading a discussion Elsewhere On The Internet about things from your childhood that no one else remembers, and it reminded me of a TV programme that I may well have hallucinated, as no one else ever seems to mention it. So do any of you (who are my age - 30 - or older, and grew up in the UK) remember a show called "Play Safe" or "Play It Safe", presented by Jimmy Saville? It was all about children's safety, and as far as I can remember Jimmy S told doom-laden stories about how ordinary children JUST LIKE YOU AND ME had been playing one afternoon and then suddenly gone HURTLING OUT OF A TEN-STOREY WINDOW or similar. In my memory these tales were also accompanied by horrifically graphic photos of squashed, mashed, and otherwise wounded children, but surely that can't be right, can it? I have a very clear image of the aftermath of a boy who'd gone through a plate glass window, though that may just be my over-active imagination. It all scared the bejeesus out of me when I was small, anyhow.

So tell me, LJ, did this actually exist, or have I invented it? I had a look on YouTube but found nothing of the show I remember. Although I did find this rather awesome public information ad:

I swear I remember seeing this, though according to YouTube it's from 1979 and I would've only been one, so surely I wouldn't be able to remember it? Perhaps there was a similar "don't play in the electricity substation" ad from Australia? Actually, now that I think of it, there probably was. ozgirlabroad, wonderlanded - can you confirm?

And furthermore,

2008-08-20T14:23:25Z

USAIN BOLT!

Gladiator names:

2008-07-05T14:47:06Z

Tom's is Ennui. Mine is Feminax, or possibly Dworkin*.

Any more for any more?

*Charlie Brooker's idea, not mine.

WHOA

2008-06-19T15:27:15Z

LJ just removed someone from my friends-list COMPLETELY RANDOMLY, and with no input at all from me. It's sorted out now, but DAMN, don't do that, LJ! Happily the person in question emailed me - so, if we are friends and have interacted substantially on LJ/IRL, and it appears that I have randomly defriended you (and we have not had a massive row or anything) with no explanation, please let me know. And LJ, stop sucking. Thanks!

yiskah @ 2008-06-09T12:51:00

2008-06-09T12:12:58Z

I had a lovely weekend, thank you very much. But enough of that: a rare public post from me to promote the Plimptons' video for their song "Lonely Old Man", directed masterfully by the magnificent uniquefergus, expert drumming and moustache-wearing by singlefished, and professional cake-flinging by my good self. (Lingering shot of my cleavage not included.)

According to Fergus, it is currently the 47th most watched UK video on YouTube!

I hope I did that right.

yiskah @ 2007-12-04T11:13:00

2007-12-04T11:17:46Z

Gah, I am USELESS at communication at the moment. Between having no access to my personal email at work, and Virgin being generally incompetent and sporadically cutting off our home internet, and my habit of putting my phone down in places in my flat where it has no reception or I can't hear it beeping, my life is currently strewn with missed calls and texts and emails that I never get round to replying to. Sorry sorry sorry if you are one of the people who has been trying to contact me of late; I FAIL AT LIFE and will try to do better.

I have so much work that it makes me cry a bit, but I am taking the time to do a wee poll that I have been thinking about for quite some time.

View Poll: The world's divided into two types of person...

PSA

2007-11-14T17:04:30Z

OK, seriously, if you are still checking my journal, which is 90% friends-locked, nearly five months after I moved from London, in the hopes of getting a chance to take pot-shots at my ex-flatmate, that is really fucking sad, particularly when her journal is completely public.

I have a lot of sympathy for everyone involved in that piece of drama, genuinely - but I am not part of it, I was never part of it, and I really resent the fact that a large part of the reason I am now almost totally friends-locked is because I got dragged into it by people trying to get at R. through me.

If you've got a serious issue with someone, anonymous comments are not the way to deal with it. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that LJ is not the way to deal with it. Sack up and put your name to what you write, or do what's best for everyone and stop reading things that you know are going to upset and anger you.

Anyhow! That's that then.

yiskah @ 2007-11-14T11:41:00

2007-11-14T11:46:34Z

I am having a good week, and productivity is unusually high. I am getting work done, and I'm about 8 inches into my lacy scarf, which I've only been working on since Sunday; on Monday night I made a borscht which, if I do say to myself, was delicious, and last night class_worrier made an absolutely FABULOUS tofu noodle soup thing that I would like to eat forever, and which we both agreed is the most grown-up thing that has ever been made in our household. I am making progress towards my Pop Vultures debut, and in just over an hour I am having a high-powered journalistic luncheon with circumlocute, where we will be conducting SERIOUS BUSINESS and not just having a gossip. Yes. Even the fact that the spending review that may well make me redundant is coming out today, and I woke myself up at 4am by punching myself in the eye, I am feeling good.

So anyway! ANONYMOUS COMMENTS WEDNESDAY. IP logging is off, as ever. Tell me things! Play nice, though.