So far, this week is two for two on good days with unexpected mishaps. On Monday, I got caught on my bike in a pounding rainstorm (complete with bonus hail), while wearing nothing waterproof of any kind. On Tuesday, my MacBook crashed completely (my attempts to snap it out of the crash may not have helped this), so it's at the store now waiting for ( Read more... )

Channelling our collective hatred of both bigotry and faulty logic, Sarah of Smart Bitches is organizing a good old-fashioned Amazon Google-Bombing. Snarktastically brilliant details here, but the short version is this ( Read more... )

Amazon.com is censoring books featuring GLBTQ characters or homosexual relationships by stripping them of their sales rankings, which makes it less likely that they will appear in searches. When contacted regarding one of the books, an author was told, "In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some ( Read more... )

As some of you already know, my friend Candy Tan is one of the two fiery, feisty, unrestrained geniuses behind Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books, the site for women who love a) romance novels and genre fiction, b) meaningful criticism and praise thereof, and c) foul language. Those of you who don't already follow this site for being made of deep- ( Read more... )

I'm home in CA for Pesach, having made my quarterly trip home line up with the holiday this time. So far, it's been wonderfully worth it. I always love spending time with my family, no special event necessary, but Passover is my favorite Jewish holiday and carries very specific memories of the extended group of friends we would usually spend it ( Read more... )

Just accidentally sent a load of wash through the washer AND the dryer ... with a tube of chapstick. Now about half of my work clothes are grease stained.

Anyone have any stain removal advice? (It's based in hemp oil, beeswax, and the like.) I really do not want to have to replace all my stuff.

It is beautiful here, spring in full display -- full sun, everything blooming and budding, bird and wind chimes and bicycle wheels singing outside. This is the first day where I've woken and wandered out on my porch to discover it's warmer inside the house than outside, and I've celebrated by putting on summer clothes, throwing open three windows ( Read more... )

Hi, LJ! I have failed you badly at updating these last few weeks. I'll aim to do a more in-depth exploration later, when I'm less tired, but here are recent highlights in vaguely chronological order ( Read more... )

It's the middle of finals, I logged nearly 30 hours in a computer lab in three days, and between now and 6 pm tomorrow I've got a book chapter to research and outline and an exam to take, but you know what, I don't care! I finished the 20-page report I'd been slaving over in InDesign by midnight last night -- twelve hours ahead of schedule and ( Read more... )

I've got a wedding to go to in a week and a half, and it's reminded me of a key fact ( Read more... )