There are a lot of reasons why people's use of L.J. have been petering out; it hit me recently that in my case, I've simply not been doing much of anything, lately, that I feel I need to tell people about ( Read more... )

I often play a version of the game Risk online on a free web page. Like most such online games, there's a chat window under the board so players can talk if they want; I rarely pay attention to it.

Last night, though, I noticed as I was taking my turn that my opponent had just added a chat message directed to me:

figrock: jesus is the reason for ( Read more... )

(M-Boss is my pseudonym for one of my managers at my current job. I have come to ask him a question about a puzzling receipt he's given me to file.)

Kim: So -- something puzzles me.

M-Boss: Complex physics equations?

Kim: ....Yes, but I've accepted that that's my own cross to bear.

(The LJ Idol entry this week was "A Traveling Travesty." This seemed apt.)

Presenting: A timeline of the first leg of my drive from New York City to Cape Cod on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, 2011.8:30 am: Call parents. Tell them that you are shooting to leave Brooklyn at about 9 am ( Read more... )

I discovered one of my favorite-ever books entirely by chance.

A few years ago, when I was having some annoying and persistent computer trouble, I "cheered myself up" by reading some works of post-apocalyptic fiction (I figure I wanted to fantasize about a world without these damn computers). I hit the Brooklyn library with Wikipedia's list in ( Read more... )

(The Latest LJ Idol entry, but it's also true.)I have a habit of picking up other people's expressions, ways of speaking, and turns of phrase. Especially so if they were from another language. Since moving to New York, especially, a number of Yiddish expressions have crept into my vocabulary. It's been a source of some hilarity for people ( Read more... )

Note to self ( Read more... )

(My latest LJ Idol entry. The topic: A Food Memory. ...And if you're reading this, Lisa: this was done with affection. Really.)Some of my first cooking experiments happened with a childhood friend Lisa, who lived across the street. When we were eight or nine, we could often convince one of our mothers to let us take over the kitchen, and make ( Read more... )

About a week ago, I was making the rounds of my neighborhood, picking up ingredients for a dinner party. I'd found a great punch recipe -- a mulled spiked cider involving rum and cinnamon schnapps -- that I was going to have simmering in my Crock Pot for the cocktail when people first arrived ( Read more... )

("Zelda" is, of course, a pseudonym, and is one of the head secretaries here at MegaCorp.)

Zelda: (in email, to myself and one other person) The Boss has ordered pizza for us all today; would you be willing to help me carry the boxes in from the freight elevator when it comes? Thanks.

Kim: (in person, crossing over to her desk) Okay, you ( Read more... )