The last time I needed deodorant, I couldn’t remember what kind I usually got, but I was pretty sure they didn’t have it. Wasn’t mine red? Maybe they didn’t make it any more; had I even gotten it the time before? I never pay attention to stuff like this. I got one that was yellow. It was no big deal (though at first I thought it made me smell like my grandma, pretty soon I couldn’t smell it at all, and I’m usually really good at noticing smells).

Now it’s gone and I found the red one again. I put it on today and, just as the last few days, thought immediately and reflexively of getting ready for work on dark mornings, listlessly hoping layer of deodorant would replace the showers I wasn’t taking before work in the afternoons, nervous applications on my days off when I planned to see my new-again boyfriend (even though I knew that cycling to Chorlton would mean I would smell only of sweat my the time he saw me anyway).

A can of deodorant lasts me a few months. It’s strange to think how different my life was a can or two ago, a few months ago, the last time I smelled like this.

I have a program for the N900 called "Belltower" which finds belltowers. Currently its main screen looks like this:

( Read more... )

But there are several apps for the phone which have a common design of front screen: a set of icons arranged horizontally with captions beneath them, all in front of a gradient fill. I wondered about making the front screen look like this:

( Read more... )

(but with better-drawn icons; these were pulled off the net in ten minutes). The idea is:

• By name allows you to type the name of a tower, e.g. "nicholas norton";
• By area gives you a list of countries to choose from, and then counties within that;
• Nearby uses the GPS to list all towers within fifty miles, in distance order;
• Bookmarks is a list of towers you've bookmarked;
• Recent is a list of the towers you've viewed recently.

Questions for you lot:

1. Do you think the mockup is an improvement?
2. Can you think of any better icons I could use?
3. Any other thoughts?

By way of Camden LGBT Forum, I've just heard that a 21 year old man, Leon Fyle, has been charged with the recent murder of Destiny Lauren. Her murder was the second murder of a trans woman in the south east (that we know about) in as many months.

There's a post I've been meaning to write about what pretty much amounts to the wholesale slaughter of trans people for a while, and Transgender Day of Remembrance next week is focusing my mind a bit too. I've been putting it off somewhat because thinking about it is very upsetting though. I'll try and get it out soon.

Originally posted at http://auntysarah.dreamwidth.org/214808.html - you can comment here or there.

Happy T-Day to me!
Happy T-Day to me!
Happy T-Day, dear Sarah!
Happy T-Day to me!

That is all.

Originally posted at http://auntysarah.dreamwidth.org/214670.html - you can comment here or there.

John F: "So this next song is from our controversial new album. I know a lot of people just super-hated this song, but, well, I don't think any of them are in this theater tonight."

Then they sang Science Is Real, including:

I like those stories
about angels, unicorns, and elves
Now I like those stories
as much as anybody else!

But when I'm seeking knowledge
either simple or abstract
the facts are with science
the facts are with science!

As people applauded at the end of the song, John F pointed out how nice it was to see we had so many "fact-based people in the house tonight".

Indeed, the rest of the film could probably best be described as very mediocre. You wouldn't have thought a film could be very mediocre. It should be either good or bad. But that's the best description.

The film isn't boring, or more implausible that normal (and gets a big pass because, well, it's got to be based on Journey to the Centre of the Earth). But nothing much happens. No plot, no interesting characters, no tension. Dinosaurs, yes, but no tension.

You can also comment at http://jack.dreamwidth.org/601503.html using OpenID. comments so far.

TMBG show Saturday night. Glorious, sublime, joyful, perfect. Must write more, but at the moment I just want to remember as well as I can what they played. I'm fairly sure they played all the songs on this list, and pretty confident they didn't play any others except a couple I didn't know. Order is *much* more sketchy.

Meet the Elements
Subliminal
Cowtown
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
Clap Your Hands
Damn Good Times
Take Out The Trash
Birdhouse in Your Soul
Shoehorn With Teeth
What Is a Shooting Star?
Particle Man
Hearing Aid
Science Is Real
My Brother the Ape
Whistling In The Dark
Why Does the Sun Shine?
The Mesopotamians
The Famous Polka
Dig My Grave
Where Your Eyes Don't Go
They Might Be Giants
Don't Let's Start
Drink!
Fingertips (YES, the whole thing -- they played Everything Is Catching On Fire, and I thought -- aww, cute, a 15-second encore. Then they didn't stop, and I was a Happy Mike.)
Dead

When someone I know adds a new friend on FarceBook, it now appears on my newsfeed and I have the option to "Like" it.

What's the etiquette here? If I don't click "Like" does that imply I'm a little grumpy about my friends having other friends and am sulking in the corner of the playground pretending I didn't want to play with them anyway?

In Speed, there was a notably unrealistic scene where a city bus jumped over a large gap in an unfinished freeway bridge, despite the lip being, you know, flat. Ironically, they filmed this scene by driving an ACTUAL city bus over an ACTUAL bridge with a gap in it (iirc), but then digitally editing the ramp out later to make it look deliberately impossible.

OK, having workmen leaving a convenient ramp at the edge of the lip might be a little unrealistic, but nowhere near as unrealistic as having the bus magically leap upwards against gravity. Alternatively, you could choose a bridge which has a slope on each side, which under good circumstances could be actually realistic.

In Van Helsing, Van Helsing jumps a COACH AND FOUR across a chasm in a similar manoeuvre. Now, horses can in fact jump. But I doubt they could lift a coach by the harness.

Now, I think I've seen an EVEN MORE implausible attempt. In Journey to the Centre of the Earth, the guy from The Mummy jumps a MINE CART over a chasm. Now, ok, there may be a ramp. And it may get across safely. But what are the chances of it landing perfectly on the rails?

You can also comment at http://jack.dreamwidth.org/601240.html using OpenID. comments so far.

Following on from my link to The Ad Hominem Fallacy Fallacy, londonkds wonders how legitimate it is to say "This person has previously shown themselves to be ignorant/misinformed/lying/batshit on this subject on several occasions, therefore I have better things to do with my time than to rigorously investigate all their arguments this time". I've replied on the original thread, but I thought I'd create a new post with my reply in:

Reminds me of Yudkowsky's stuff on reversed stupidity and the follow up, Argument Screens Off Authority.

If someone is reliably wrong (a well informed liar), you can learn something by listening to them: you just increase the weight you give to beliefs which contradict what they say on topics where you know they tend to lie. But this might not be useful, if you already strongly believe stuff which contradicts what they say.

In practice, the people are ignorant or batshit haven't carefully studied how to be wrong. There are more ways to be wrong than right, so they probably are wrong, but you don't learn anything by listening to them, because their statements aren't tangled up with the truth at all. As Yudkowsky and brokenhut say, you can decide not to listen to such people because life is too short, but that decision shouldn't influence your opinion on the truth of their argument (though it's hard not to be influenced in practice). So I think your quoted statement is a justifiable one as long as you don't append "and I'll believe their argument less as a result".

Suber's stuff on logical rudeness covers the case where your belief that they're batshit is because of some theory you hold which includes explanations of how all critics of the theory are batshit (examples exist in evangelical Christianity, atheism and feminism, that I've seen). ISTM that such a theory can't be used to dismiss critical arguments, though it can be used to explain why so many people apparently don't believe the theory.

(You can comment on the original post: I've disabled comments on this one to keep all the discussion in one place).

Spoilers for Season 1, Episode 1 of BSG.

The end of Mad Men series 3 is _Fantastic_.

That is all.

Thanks muchly to Padmini for the Revolutionary Party.  I went as John Lennon, Julie went as Princess Leia and we both had a good time.  Here's a couple of photos, taken by Erin (first one) and Morag (as Erin's _in_ the second photo as James Dean):




Julie helped me put together the t-shirt - recolouring the John Lennon picture and sorting out transparency issues for me, for which I'm rather grateful.  Having a photoshop whiz in the flat is dead handy :->

It's a fantastic idea that sadly doesn't look like a lot of fun:


Actually, I'd love to see this as an RTS.

http://wildammo.com/2009/08/09/what-stormtroopers-do-on-their-day-off/

Funny photos of stormtroopers at play.

"Look at the room. Look at us! We look like we've just murdered someone!"

"Well, technically, I did."

Were you upset when the horse and rider were drowned in the Red Sea?

"Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea". Exodus 15:1

Don't worry, God loves horses too, but HE (The Word) uses animals as a teaching device--the Old Covenant characters are portraying "the oxen who grind out the corn of scripture" (like Samson, and like our spiritual food) and the horses are those of us who get to CHOOSE to whom we give our reins.

"I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons". Ps16:7

"Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart". Ps26:2

"For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body". James 3:2,3

The Bible uses animals in a most interesting way; from how Jesus called Herod "a fox", and how Satan is portrayed as a serpent and dragon, and people are regarded as fish, Jesus as a lamb and lion, and deity as 'birds'. The clean animals and the 'unclean' -- until Peter's vision of the great sheet filled with all kinds of animals, and his interpretation was about the Gentiles: "What God has cleansed--don't call unclean."...my paraphrase.

When Jesus told the Syrophenician woman about not casting the children's bread to the dogs, Mk7, she wasn't offended, but persisted in her plea for her daughter. Well now, if Jesus could call the Gentiles "dogs", doesn't that make us think of the popular expression about "raining cats and dogs", and how those two household pets are so much a part of civilization today? (Yes, of course there are many other kinds of animals used as ‘pets').

What about the two ‘talking animals' — the serpent and the donkey. Num22:28. Do they make you automatically think of parrots or mynah birds? Do you have any favorite animal stories related to the Bible?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/valerie-tarico/speaking-evangelese-tips_b_322999.html

Tarico's article on evangelical jargon phrases and dog whistles. Some of these sound familiar