![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greygirlbeastHere's the ruckus. There are three things in my life that bring me joy, without fail. What's more, each of these things is, essentially, free. No, I'll not tell you what those three things are. But, because I am not an utter cocksucker, I will say that one of them isn't writing, and if anyone should happen to guess what the other three are, I'll confirm. And send you a banana sticker. Oh, there would be four things that bring me joy, without fail, but it doesn't seem fair to include heroin on the list. Also, I lied about the banana stickers.
No, not having a good day. I'm afraid to go to sleep at night, because all I hear is a clock ticking very loudly.
Also, to harp and beat dead horses, the whole thing with emoticons and l33t, maybe you don't notice anyone thinking you're an idiot when you use XD or <.< or lol***, but maybe that's because you've begun keeping the company of idiots...or maybe you always did. Just a thought. Take it or fucking leave it be. Oh, Caitlín! Will you not ever learn you catch more flies with honey, and a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down? Problem is, it's a lot more satisfying hitting the Bad Things with baseball bats.
Yesterday, I wrote 1,261 words on the still untitled Mars story for Sirenia Digest 69. I mean to finish it today, which makes me eager to think of a title.
Last night, we watched André Øvredal's Trolljegeren (2010; aka Trollhunter). And, fuck me, but never in a million years would I have expected this to be a brilliant little movie. All I can say is see it, and if you read the description first, don't let that affect how you approach the film. You've got to go in with an open mind. I was only just barely able to, but I'm very grateful I was. Want to know what awesome really means, or, for that matter, awful? See this movie. The climactic creature encounter is, truly, genuinely, both awesome and awful. Four thumbs way, way up. Oh, it doesn't hurt if you love the art of people like Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) and John Baur (1882-1918) and have at least a passing familiarity with Nordic mythology.
Now...photographs from August 29th (the day we drove to Watch Hill, then east again to Narragansett), after Irene passed over us, and left the sea angry and ill:
Looking down Lighthouse Road at Watch Hill, to the south, towards, well, the lighthouse.
Looking out across Little Narragansett Bay towards Napatree Point, view to the west. The low afternoon sun was not helping.
Now, parked near the lighthouse at Watch Hill, looking northeast towards East Beach. Katharine Hepburn was swimming right about here when she saw the approach of the Great Hurricane of 1938.
Again, East Beach. I began to notice rainbows on the backs of the breakers. Kathryn was able to catch a couple of halfway decent photographs of them.
Another "wavebow."
The Lighthouse at Watch Hill, view to the south.
Now, skip ahead to Moonstone Beach. This sign between Card and Trustom Pond, and you would think this would be a case of unnecessary signage, but you'd be wrong.
We last saw this stone and mortar wall (or whatever it is) uncovered by some other hurricane. Usually, I think it's under about a foot of sand.
Ground view, forced perspective shot from sand to sea. View to the south.
An angry sea. Waves about chest high, and filled with detritus (mostly seaweed and dead fish) to the point that they were black. Most beaches had high-bacteria warnings posted in the wake of Irene. View to the south.
Moonstone, looking...wrong. Hardly any cobbles, and you never see these sandbars there. View to the west.
Another artifact usually well covered by the sand.
Closeup of the sandbar, and note the rose hip in the foreground, view to the southwest.
High seas (25+ feet) over-topped the barrier dunes and flowed down into Trustom Pond. View to the north. It must have been a sight to see.
Same with Card Pond, also view to the north. This is at low tide, by the way.
All photographs Copyright © 2011 by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Kathryn A. Pollnac
*** Or, for example, ;-), :-), o.0, >.>, :-P, ad infinitum. And, for the record, yes, I've caught myself doing this, especially on SL, but I do my best to remind myself it makes me look like an idiot.
No, not having a good day. I'm afraid to go to sleep at night, because all I hear is a clock ticking very loudly.
Also, to harp and beat dead horses, the whole thing with emoticons and l33t, maybe you don't notice anyone thinking you're an idiot when you use XD or <.< or lol***, but maybe that's because you've begun keeping the company of idiots...or maybe you always did. Just a thought. Take it or fucking leave it be. Oh, Caitlín! Will you not ever learn you catch more flies with honey, and a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down? Problem is, it's a lot more satisfying hitting the Bad Things with baseball bats.
Yesterday, I wrote 1,261 words on the still untitled Mars story for Sirenia Digest 69. I mean to finish it today, which makes me eager to think of a title.
Last night, we watched André Øvredal's Trolljegeren (2010; aka Trollhunter). And, fuck me, but never in a million years would I have expected this to be a brilliant little movie. All I can say is see it, and if you read the description first, don't let that affect how you approach the film. You've got to go in with an open mind. I was only just barely able to, but I'm very grateful I was. Want to know what awesome really means, or, for that matter, awful? See this movie. The climactic creature encounter is, truly, genuinely, both awesome and awful. Four thumbs way, way up. Oh, it doesn't hurt if you love the art of people like Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) and John Baur (1882-1918) and have at least a passing familiarity with Nordic mythology.
Now...photographs from August 29th (the day we drove to Watch Hill, then east again to Narragansett), after Irene passed over us, and left the sea angry and ill:
Looking down Lighthouse Road at Watch Hill, to the south, towards, well, the lighthouse.
Looking out across Little Narragansett Bay towards Napatree Point, view to the west. The low afternoon sun was not helping.
Now, parked near the lighthouse at Watch Hill, looking northeast towards East Beach. Katharine Hepburn was swimming right about here when she saw the approach of the Great Hurricane of 1938.
Again, East Beach. I began to notice rainbows on the backs of the breakers. Kathryn was able to catch a couple of halfway decent photographs of them.
Another "wavebow."
The Lighthouse at Watch Hill, view to the south.
Now, skip ahead to Moonstone Beach. This sign between Card and Trustom Pond, and you would think this would be a case of unnecessary signage, but you'd be wrong.
We last saw this stone and mortar wall (or whatever it is) uncovered by some other hurricane. Usually, I think it's under about a foot of sand.
Ground view, forced perspective shot from sand to sea. View to the south.
An angry sea. Waves about chest high, and filled with detritus (mostly seaweed and dead fish) to the point that they were black. Most beaches had high-bacteria warnings posted in the wake of Irene. View to the south.
Moonstone, looking...wrong. Hardly any cobbles, and you never see these sandbars there. View to the west.
Another artifact usually well covered by the sand.
Closeup of the sandbar, and note the rose hip in the foreground, view to the southwest.
High seas (25+ feet) over-topped the barrier dunes and flowed down into Trustom Pond. View to the north. It must have been a sight to see.
Same with Card Pond, also view to the north. This is at low tide, by the way.
All photographs Copyright © 2011 by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Kathryn A. Pollnac
*** Or, for example, ;-), :-), o.0, >.>, :-P, ad infinitum. And, for the record, yes, I've caught myself doing this, especially on SL, but I do my best to remind myself it makes me look like an idiot.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 07:51 pm (UTC)Regarding emoticons, I guess I'm lucky I never learned them. I'd probably create one that tells someone to fuck off when I meant happy trails.
That reminds me of a joke where, when writing a letter to an abusive client, you imagine each piece of punctuation as an insult. Petty but somehow satisfying.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 07:54 pm (UTC)Love the wavebows.
They were amazing.
Regarding emoticons, I guess I'm lucky I never learned them.
I wish I never had. I first began to encounter them in 1994, on Usenet, before there even was a world wide web. My war with them is old.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 08:43 pm (UTC)So glad you liked Trollhunter, though I must admit I thought you might.
It rocks.
And I'll definitely lay of the one emoticon I tend to use when I'm popping in on your territory.
Thank you.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 08:45 pm (UTC)I have to confess I *like* XD as a thing, because I find something soothing about the shape of those two letters stacked together.
I'm not talking about visual aesthetics. I'm talking about communication.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 08:37 pm (UTC)~L~
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 08:47 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure it is becoming a new and all-purpose punctuation mark. Though, it often, insensibly, prefaces a comment. But I will no longer endure it. I tell people to stop.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 09:19 pm (UTC)My war with them has just begun.
Good photos, as always. Thanks also for the Waiting For God link yesterday.
I won't try and guess the three best things for you. But at least five for me; cigarettes, coffee, good books, the friendship/love of the most important woman and man in my life. Couldn't live without any of them.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 09:21 pm (UTC)Thanks also for the Waiting For God link yesterday.
Er...are you possibly confusing me with someone else?
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 11:55 pm (UTC)Oh. It never occurred to me that on LJ you were referring to FB.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 09:22 pm (UTC)Thank you for the pictures; Kathryn is really an incredible photographer. I lived in New England for many years before moving to NYC. Despite the fact that the only way I'm moving out of this city is kicking and screaming, I still get nostalgic for the New England coast. With my work schedule and lack of a car I don't get back to visit as much as I'd like.
I'll cool it with the emoticons in my comments. I didn't know about your flaming hatred of them. I use them because I think it's easy to misrepresent one's intentions when communicating by computer. (Besides, I feel like a dope writing, "I feel happy and friendly now so please imagine me smiling during this virtual conversation!"). However, I DO use full words, complete sentences, and standard grammar when text-messaging. I only know one other person who does that!
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 09:56 pm (UTC)Is one of your three things reading?
No.
I'll cool it with the emoticons in my comments. I didn't know about your flaming hatred of them.
I have railed against them in this journal, periodically, for many years.
I use them because I think it's easy to misrepresent one's intentions when communicating by computer.
Yes, it is. However, there are other options. For example, if I think something is funny, I simply say "heh" or "hah" or something like, "Oh, that's rich."
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 11:07 pm (UTC)Now on to things that make you happy. Would beaches be one of those things? The ocean does seem to be something you enjoy.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 11:54 pm (UTC)But the title alone makes it sound like a really bad made-for-SyFy film!
Trust me. It's not.
Would beaches be one of those things? The ocean does seem to be something you enjoy.
Close. But see below.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 11:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 11:51 pm (UTC)that one thing that makes you very happy is swimming in the sea.
Correct.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 06:53 am (UTC)I have not made it out to Coney Island yet because I've been lazy this weekend (plus from where I live in NYC it's close to 2 hours by subway one way). If I can wake up at any decent hour tomorrow (dicey as it's 3 AM and I'm still up) maybe I'll go then. I'm going to Orchard Beach, which is a man-made beach in the Bronx, next weekend.
*please note the lack of emoticons in this post*
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 04:54 pm (UTC)*please note the lack of emoticons in this post*
Noted, and thank you.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 11:27 pm (UTC)I admit to using emoticons and acronyms, principally in instant messaging, but I refuse to even speak to people who abbreviate, deliberately misspell, or otherwise intentionally mangle defenseless words, whether in pursuit of brevity or of imagined hipness.
Except my mum. She seems to think that she's obliged to text in 'txtspk' and I can't seem to disabuse her of this notion, despite appealing to both her literacy and dignity on many occasions. I still talk to her, just not by sms if I can prevent it.
Typing errors happen to the best of us. Typn lyk dis for no good* reason? That's a paddlin'.
*Good reasons are limited to: Severe learning disability, severe palsy, or being five years old.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-04 11:52 pm (UTC)Good reasons are limited to: Severe learning disability, severe palsy, or being five years old.
I might ad being a hipster douchebag. Which I think might be a birth defect.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 04:53 pm (UTC)Surely there already is such an abomination. In Portland.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 05:19 pm (UTC)We do already have Jackie-O Motherfucker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie-O_Motherfucker)...
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 12:45 am (UTC)Also, when I think of your Special Secret Project, all I can come up with is that it's movie/tv related. Maybe I'm way off base, though. We shall see what we shall see, as my mum says. Now, supper and a little Rift.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 06:51 am (UTC)My first thought regarding your three joyful things would be Spooky, Hubero, and Smeagol. But then again, they're not things, nor are they free.
Would it were so simple.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 02:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 06:47 am (UTC)Your welcome.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 02:49 am (UTC)Also, without reading any of the previous comments (because lj for iphone is pants, but it's the only internet I have since Caine did some cowboy shit to the router last week), my guess for three things that unfailingly make you happy would be the beach, good conversation, and Spooky being all adorable and odd.
I have no use for a banana sticker anyway.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 06:49 am (UTC)my guess for three things that unfailingly make you happy would be the beach, good conversation, and Spooky being all adorable and odd.
Well, that would be nice. But no. Though, see above. The beach is close.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 05:23 am (UTC)Nice . . .
Music I discovered recently: The Pack a.d., "Sirens."
You needn't fear
Say you trust me
My back has wings
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 06:50 am (UTC)Yeah, the thing about Katharine Hepburn has always given me an odd sort of shiver.
You needn't fear
Say you trust me
My back has wings
Thank you. Right now. I'm not asleep, but unconscious. Tomorrow, I'll listen.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 08:16 am (UTC)Last one for the time being. I'm just settling in to watch an Australian indie film called The Tunnel, which was released free through torrent networks rather than getting cinematic distribution.
I'm not far in, but it seems it may be something you might find interesting. It's documentary style (not found footage), about Something in the abandoned old train tunnels under Sydney.
Nice production values, good sense of creepy mystery, I'm hoping they don't get all expository about whatever it is in the tunnels towards the end, but right now it's got a good, tense brush-with-the-unknown thing going.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 08:32 am (UTC)IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475937/
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 04:52 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure I saw this movie. Yeah, we did. It was so-so. Oh, and the link doesn't work.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 05:48 pm (UTC)Sorry about the link; it actually DOES work if you follow the "press enter and click" directions that pop up. For anyone who is interested, try this instead: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/abandoned/
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 04:51 pm (UTC)I'm not far in, but it seems it may be something you might find interesting. It's documentary style (not found footage), about Something in the abandoned old train tunnels under Sydney.
I have a problem with Australian "horror" films. Many of them, of the slasher variety, actually manage to make me angry, in their brutality, and this is coming from me. Wolf Creek, for example.
But, this sounds different, and I'll check it out.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-06 03:51 am (UTC)I loathed that piece of crap Wolf Creek for so many reasons. Don't even start me.
But no, The Tunnel was ace. They held the ambiguity and mystery right til the end, even when the Something was right there, breathing into the camera, and you still never clearly see it, never dispell it, never shine a light on it and dissect and explain it so you can reassure yourself there's nothing, truly, to be afraid of.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-05 03:47 pm (UTC)Here's something that I hope doesn't catch on - it might approach emoticon annoyance level:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/04/booktrack-just-a-horrible-idea-really-horrible/