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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Saturday, December 19th, 2009 |
xraytheenforcer
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10:23p |
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grrm
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5:08p |
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daveax
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4:09p |
Double Snow Fail, Philly Style
I live on the main eastbound street in West Philly, just off the Penn campus. It's a critical route for inbound commuters and is thus one of the city's "Snow Emergency Routes." When City Hall declares an official "Snow Emergency," all parked cars must be removed from these streets. Failure to comply can bring either a $150 ticket or are towed to a city storage lot -- where you don't get the car back till you pay the ticket AND the towing fee AND the storage charge, and the lot is somewhere in the middle of East Bumblefuck, so you also get to shell out for a $50 cab ride if you can't find a friend to take you there. Last night, a Snow Emergency was declared, effective 9 AM today. It's been repeatedly announced on every radio station, reported in the newspapers, and they even had the City Hall autodialer call every land-line on the affected streets with a reminder. Which brings us to Fail #1: They have the cheap-ass model autodialer, which does not have the capability of waiting until an answering machine's message is complete before it rattles off its spiel. Those who hear the news via voicemail of one or another variety only get the last half of the message. So, about 3 PM this afternoon, I'm out in front of the house doing the first round of shoveling. (I figure that four rounds of 3" shovelling is wiser than one round of 12" shovelling, and my back agrees.) Clearly, the message has not gotten through to many of my neighbors, as there are at least a dozen snow-covered cars parked on my side of the street alone. [Aside: Some of this is attributable to two key factors, which the city hasn't figured out yet: First, many of the block's residents are students, who don't have land-lines, only cell-phones, and who don't generally pay attention to local news or radio. Second, my block also has a fair number of immigrants from Asia, Africa, and South America. They don't have much English yet, and I've no idea how well they keep up with local events. (And, obviously enough, neither of these groups is likely to know what the city's "Snow Emergency" regulations entail to begin with.)] Also on the block, stopped next to the first of the improperly-parked cars, is a Philly Police car. The operator is sitting inside the car, writing tickets, and then getting out to place them on the offending vehicles. He wipes away a bit of snow from the windshield and tucks the ticket under the wiper blade. When he finally gets to the cars directly in front of my house, I've just finished shovelling for the moment and the snow is already doing its best to erase my efforts. I wander over to take a closer look. And, as I expected, it's time for... Fail #2: They're using standard thick-paper ticketing stock, tucked inside a paper envelope. These tickets will get covered up by snow, so the owners won't notice them until they are actually ready to drive away. If there's been any melting prior to the owner's arrival, the tickets will also be sopping wet and totally unreadable. And some of those owners will probably start their cars and turn on the wipers in order to clear the windshield, mangling the ticket even further. (Which means that they won't get to pay up until they receive the second notice in the mail, complete with late fees and interest charges...) Nice work, hometown! |
| Friday, December 18th, 2009 |
grrm
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10:14p |
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yagathai
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1:13p |
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| Thursday, December 17th, 2009 |
yagathai
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7:43p |
One of the cats has diarrhea. I know, because I looked under the kitchen table. There is no God. It's like... it's like a dead fish made of cheese crawled up the ass of a rotting possum. That's it. I am never feeding them again. |
xraytheenforcer
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10:59a |
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etrangere
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1:15p |
interview meme answers
for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) tomboy_typist1. ASOIAF: Your top five pairings. Gushing is a bonus.Sandor/Sansa : hit me hard from reading the book. It's an interesting mix of creepy and sweet and a great execution of the classic Beauty & Beast archetype. I remember when I first finished read CoK I went back to re-read all their chapters together ;) Jaime/Brienne: they're so adorable and snarky together! Also love the reverse Beauty&Beast and the way it works on several layers (the honour as well as their appearance). Theon/Jon: probably my favourite crack hatesex pairing for ASOIAF. Besides the hot hatesex appeal, it's an interesting pairing to explore their respective daddy issues and feeling of not!belonguing (which is exactly why they hate each others so much ^^) Jaime/Loras: Well that scene where Jaime is all "Loras is minime!" and they are all cocky and snarky at each others is pretty awesome, thus pairing created. Yummy. Cersei/Sansa: soooo messed up, but an excellent pairing to explore mindfuck and fairytale archetypes. 2. Do you write at all in French? If so, is there a difference in what you write/how you write it? Speaking of which, is French your first language?Well, I'm capable of writing in French, and it is my first language, but I seldom write fiction in it, at least not for a long time. I never wrote any fanfic in French (though my first Buffy fanfics got translated back in the days). I think there' a difference in how we wrote any languages because of the inherent differences between languages lol so yes. They have their own rhythm, sonorities, structures, so of course it influences how we write. I find writing in English helps me not feeling like it "sounds false" when I write fanfiction. 3. If you could change just one thing about the world, what would it be? Discuss.I'd like to make people more aware about issues of racism, sexism, homophobia etc. not just the way they seem obvious, but the way they seep in everywhere unconsciously. 4. Dancing with the Wolves or Singing in the Rain? Why one and not the other?Errr, one's a racist overly long movie with Kevin Costner and the other is a charming and fun musical. I think I'll take Singing in the Rain!! 5. Just very randomly, your opinions on Tolkien? I don't remember whether or not you're involved at all with that fandom etc etc. I'm not in the fandom, though I read Lord of the Rings many times when I was younger. I don't have any particular opinion (especially since I haven't read it in a loooong time). He's a good writer with a lot of qualities, but neither do I think he's the best ever; I find accusations of manicheism etc. levelled at his writing are very unfair since his work was much more nuanced and his characterisation contained many grey areas. Anyway if you wanna know, my favourite part of the book was the return to the shire, my favourite character Faramir, and my favourite pairings Legolas/Gimli, Merry/Pippin, Faramir/Eowyn; and I had a big soft spot for all the almost-mostly-evil characters like Saroumane, Gollum, Grima & Orcs who captured Merry & Pippy #1 & 2. I never liked Gandalf. I liked the movies but mostly for opposite reasons to what I liked in the books. Current Mood:  awake |
uberneedle
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12:15p |
an ethical dilemma..
Dear LJ friends, sorry for being crap at updating, but please help me out with this one as I don't know what to do.. My dad is back in hospital again. He had an op last week to have his gallbladder removed, and he came through it ok, but he's still in a lot of pain, and I'm not sure he's going to get out before christmas. Kit and I had planned to spend christmas with his family, but I'm thinking I should really go over to France. Problem is, flights are horrendously expensive, so there is no way Kit could joine me at any stage, and it means we spend the whole of his christmas holidays apart. I really don't know what to do. |
eefster
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11:21a |
LJ Paid account discount
Turns out that LJ is letting me, as a current Paid/Permanent account-holder, send out ten $10 coupons to use against an annual Paid account. (In less convoluted terms, you can buy a Paid account for one year for $9.95/$15, instead of $19.95/$25.) If anybody's interested, give me a shout. |
yagathai
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12:33a |
Holy mother of god
This is the only naturally dealt royal flush I have ever seen, and that I am ever likely to see, in my entire life. I wish it had been mine.  |
etrangere
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12:57a |
I have a new layout! etrangere etrangere etrangereI had gotten soooo tired of the previous one! (almost one year of it). Also I need a Friend Only banner now that my journal is basically semi friend only, might as well make it official. I never use to save FO banners!! I thought maybe this one, but it might just scare people away XDDD Current Mood:  drunkCurrent Music: Noa - If I Give You Everything |
| Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 |
yagathai
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6:05p |
The most useless thing in the world
Gentle (*snigger*) reader: You know I don't lapse into gratuotous profanity all that often, so I hope that you will forgive the following lapse: The new SEPTA mobile website, www.septa.org/m , is the most useless fucking website on the planet. When I am checking the SEPTA site from my phone, there are two things that I want to know: how to get from point A to point B, and when my train/bus/whatever is arriving. If anyone can use that site to figure out how to get from Suburban station to Ridley Park station, and what the train schedule is for that route, you're a better man (gender inclusive) than I. |
regina_of_york
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3:57p |
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eefster
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4:09p |
Perfume
I think I might have gone a little crazy over at The Perfumed Court. I bought 46 perfume samples from Chanel, Miller Harris, and Issey Miyake. Now I'd rather do this than buy a full bottle of anything that I later find out smells horrible/I don't like/I react to, PLUS I use perfume infrequently enough that these will last a long time. Still, when I think about it (and where on earth I'm going to put all of these 1ML bottles), I wonder what I've let mysef in for. ETA: Perfect timing. I actually got a shipping notice about 20 minutes ago. I'll let you know when it arrives, so you can all hold your collective noses as I try everything. :p Current Mood:  chipper |
racebannon42
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9:56a |
Dinner Possible
I found a place this summer that makes the greatest Roast Beef Sandwich I've ever had. Its called Clancey's Meats and Fish. Its a small butcher shop that locally sources most of its products, fairly high end stuff. Anyway, I found a review of the place on Yelp when looking for a place to buy meats, and people were raving about the sandwiches, so being a lover of good roast beef I had to try it. I went in hopeful, and seeing it was $8.50 for just the Sandwich I had pretty high expectations. I was not disappointed. They cook the roasts themselves, and it sits there in the case crusted with herbs. They slice it razor thin when you order lean and rare and pink. They have a number of toppings, most people get it with everything, but I'm a bit more picky. I just get it with cheese, salt & pepper, and Red Leaf Romaine. And the bread... mmmmm the bread. Its a crusty baguette from Rustica Bakery So satisfyingly crunchy on the outside, while soft and delicious on the inside.  So, I'd been raving about this place to my brother who's in town for a few days, and Invited him there for lunch. He couldnt do lunch so we decided to go there for dinner instead. We got there a bit after 6 and TRAGEDY! they were out of bread, so no sandwiches. I was extremely disappointed. The owner felt bad especailly when finding out John was from out of town. So she suggested we try Grand Cafe. This is located in an off the beaten path location in S Minneapolis, not to far from Clancey's. We walked in the door and the place was empty. Very nice quaint little restaurant. Normally I equate cafe with fairly simple fair, burgers, meatloaf, hot sandwiches, but upon opening the menu, i saw this was a pretty sophisticated place. Half a dozen entree's, a few starters, and a brief selection of soups and salads. I'm usually a pretty simple eater, and dont usually go in for fancy dishes, but everything here was a bit on the facy side. I decided to go for the Local Cornmeal Johnny Cakes ~ Creamed Kale ~ Cranberry-Marjoram Jus and a bowl of Tomato Bisque. After we ordered our server brought out a small sample of pastry puffs, with a light bit of Gruyere inside, and they were delicious. Then she brought out a platter of home made crackers, which were wonderful as well. Then the soup and salads arrived. The bisque was amazing. I've never been a huge tomato soup fan, but I was blown away. Then the entrees came. The Johnny Cakes were a delight, and the chicken was fantastic. The Kale, well I'm not much for Kale. I gave it a try, but didnt care for it. I'm sure if I liked that sort of thing, it would have been good as well though.
At was over all pretty reasonable for the quality of the food. Entrees were all around $20, and sides were in the $5-$10 range. More than I'd usually spend but for a place that nice, well worth it. The final touch was when they brought the check the tray was sprinkled with some candies made at the store across the street. Some jelly beans and candy rasberries, and blackberries, and they were divine. I'll need to go and check that store out sometime.
So in the end even though I was denied my sammich, It turned out rather well. I enjoy trying out new places, and this one was definately a pleaser. |
regina_of_york
|
10:40a |
Holiday Baking
I'm looking for either no bake cookie recipes or cookie bar recipes, if anyone has any good ones to share. I usually bake a couple hundred cookies each Christmas,* but I'm thinking of making things a little bit easier on myself this year, lol. So far my only idea is to substitute Buckeyes for my usual peanut butter cookies, which will save me some baking time. *Yes, I AM insane. But we already knew that, right? ;-P Current Mood:  cold |
yagathai
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9:32a |
... and last night I laid in bed tossing and turning until 3:30 AM. My body just doesn't know what it wants. |
| Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 |
yagathai
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1:31p |
Dangerous Wands -- the jokes are obvious, but the concept is worth a chuckle. Hermoine Granger as the Michelle Pfeiffer character in Dangerous Minds. |
yagathai
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1:28p |
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yagathai
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1:07p |
So I'm trying to plan out my Christmas menu, and I'm not sure whether I want to roast a goose or do a rabbit ragout. I saw some lovely looking rabbits in a butcher's window down at the Italian market last weekend, and they got me thinking. Poll #1499418 What should I cook for Christmas dinner?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 24 What should I cook? |
rockstarwookie
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4:23p |
This is not a game of 'who the fuck are you'.
Depeche Mode were fantastic. The set list was: In Chains Wrong Hole to Feed Walking in My Shoes It's No Good A Question of Time Precious World In My Eyes Insight Home Miles Away/The Truth Is Policy of Truth In Your Room I Feel You Enjoy the Silence Never Let Me Down Again Encore: One Caress Stripped Behind the Wheel Personal Jesus I was glad to hear some songs (though only 2) from Black Celebration and I was pretty impressed by how many people knew the words to the awesome "A Question of Time".
Tonight, I am going to see Eddie Izzard. In celebration, here is one of my favourite sketches, animated with Lego. I'm sure you've all seen it, but it can't hurt to see it again :D |
xraytheenforcer
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10:47a |
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yagathai
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10:38a |
Wearing long johns today for the first time in my adult life. Verdict: Warm, not too constricting (if you know what I mean), would be very comfortable if they weren't so damn itchy. Much better than dancer's tights for cutting the cold, which was my previous solution. It isn't really cold today -- I wanted to take them for a test drive on a day where I could remove them if I needed to without freezing my bits off. |
regina_of_york
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10:33a |
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