preraphaelitepunk.com

• Date Movie
  Oh, dear. Alyson Hannigan has apparently lost her mind. How sad.

• Tempeh Making - a photoset on Flickr
  Wow — step-by-step photos on making you own tempeh! Herbi Ditl rules. I must now investigate the local availability of rhizopus. I bet Return to Eden has it — they have everything else! :)
  (tags: vegetarian vegan tempeh recipes howto)
• WXIA 11Alive.com - ACLU Releases Government Photos
  Further details about the alleged government surveillance of vegan demonstrators, as mentioned previously. Again, link found via the Food Fight blog.
  (tags: vegan government surveillance demonstrators aclu activism)

Blobby Final Icing

Originally uploaded by moria.

The royal icing was too runny and got blobby, but the cupcakes themselves are really good. I take no credit for this — it’s all the recipe. They’re rich and deeply chocolate, not too sweet, but punctuated with hits of sweetness from the filling and icings. I don’t think I made the filling hole quite large enough, or maybe I didn’t pipe the filling in quite aggressively enough, but that’s why I wanted to do a trial run first.

Mmm. Must not eat them all for dinner. Sarah has kindly agreed to help me dispose of the surplus, because I really don’t need to eat all of these, but I know I will if they’re left sitting around in the fridge.

I watched “Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport” tonight. Gods, that was sad. I mean, I’m generally far sappier about puppies than I am about human children — not that there’s anything wrong with human children, who can be quite delightful under the proper circumstances, but I just can’t escape the feeling that somewhere, deep down, there’re recording everything I say and preserving it for future mockery of me — but this movie made me cry with frightening regularity. Maybe it’s just that I’m still immature enough to identify with kids, and hearing about children having to leave their parents and leave for foster families who may not even exist and who certainly don’t even speak your language and who may be wanting you only as a domestic servant . . . it just killed me. I don’t normally cry a lot during movies, but I kept having to pause the DVD so I could collect myself. If you do Netflix this one, be sure to slo-mo through the Position Wanted ads segment, because it’s among the most heartbreaking if you read all the bits. Lovely, beautiful, heartwrenching movie, which is just my type. If it doesn’t make me cry, from beauty or from pathos, then it’s not in my top echelon of movies. (ItAoS had the added benefit of being narrated by Dame Judi Dench, who has automatic Very Much Cool Indeed Points from me, no matter what project she chooses to do.)

Of course, the problem with pathos-rich movies is that you often need some sort of antidote afterwards, if you are expecting to sleep comfortably in any sort of fashion in the forseeable future. For this purpose, I turned to PBS, which I knew was showing my eternal favorite “Blackadder” from 11:30 to 12:00.

Unfortunately, tonight’s offering turned out to be the final episode of “Blackadder Goes Forth,” which is in the finest traditions of Ben Eltonesque comedies and generally just a brilliant and moving episode, but not exactly what you need when you’ve just been sniffling and dribbling through an hour and a half of young Jewish WWII refugees barely escaping from their homelands and then finding out that their parents had either died horribly or survived but in completely unrecognizable and irrevocably scarred forms. You want something perky and silly and upbeat, not young George and Darling and Baldrick and Blackadder going over the top into No-Man’s Land and being shot to pieces in a movingly silent montage.

In my current state, I do not need to see a very young Hugh Laurie et al. dying in a tragic and futile manner, no matter how moving and artistic I might find that in my normal daily state. I’m all upset and downcast now, and kicking myself for not having retained at least one “Red Dwarf” DVD. I could really do with a few curry jokes right about now. Pathetically, most of my not-Netflixed-but-really-owned-outright DVDs are of the more dramatic/tragic variety, which doesn’t really help in cases like this.

Damn. I really should plan ahead better than this.

For some reason, my RSS feeds for Flickr photos are picking up pics posted by complete strangers. Every single Flickr feed to an individual person’s page has at least 10 random pictures that were not uploaded by the person I’ve RSSed, and that don’t show up on the individual’s proper Flickr page. (Actually, the mystery photos may not be entirely random — roblesliecarter, chemeriz, and Pat Neary seem to crop up in most, if not all, the feeds.) Feeds for group pools don’t seem to be affected.

WTF? Anybody else noticed this happening? Is it Bloglines going berserk, or Flickr, or what?

Update: Flickr is aware that this happened, and is either trying to fix it or already has fixed it. See here, if you wish to see the whole account. Nothing posted yet on the Flickr blog, but they’ll probably post something there or in the news blurbs soonish.

Via the Food Fight grocery store blog, a news item about ACLU allegations that the government conducted surveillance on protesters, including anti-war and vegan demonstrators — in Georgia. Yup. Right here in our own little state. Are the allegations true? Who knows, but I personally wouldn’t be at all surprised.

Who knew we were such a hotbed of scary liberals? Where are these people? Why don’t I meet any of them? I mean, I live in a neighborhood that’s fairly leftist for Atlanta — our graffiti tends toward defacing “stop” signs to make them read “Stop War” or “Stop Bush,” which always gives me a proud little tear in my eye when I see it — but I certainly don’t know of any vegan demos, except for the Farm Sanctuary fundraiser walk (which I plan to do this year, really, honestly), and I’ve only heard of one or two anti-war demos, generally on the day they’re taking place so it’s too late to take time off from work to join. Maybe I’m just not aware of these things, and would be heartened and pleased if I actually read community bulletin boards or whatever. Maybe it’s just that I’m off in my own little world most of the time, obsessed with my own little thoughts. Or maybe someone in the government just thought that anyone weird enough to be leftist/vegan in Georgia had to be enough of an oddball to be worth keeping an eye on.

This is probably the story Clarke meant when he mentioned yesterday that he’d heard the government was targeting vegans; I thought he’d meant something to do with the SHAC7 trial, which is more mysterious and convoluted to me. (Free speech or incitement? I don’t know enough to have an opinion, yet; I keep thinking back to that pro-life Web site a few years ago that published a “hit list” of doctors who performed abortions, apparently with personal information about them — they weren’t actually doing any attacks, if I remember, but showed rather unbecoming glee when a doctor got killed. Personally, I am pro-choice, but I remember thinking that they had every right to publish their opinions, no matter how whacked-out I might personally think they are, but that publishing addresses of those they were attacking was at the best poor judgment, and probably should’ve left them open to wrongful death/injury suits if anyone was hurt because the information was there.) I haven’t yet had time to sort through all the media reports and blogs and sources to try to figure out precisely what’s going on with the SHAC issue, though, so that’s a topic for a later posting.

ObCaveat: I do not endorse violence, toward humans or property. The most I endorse is perhaps discreetly giving the finger toward a human or building that gives offense. An eye for an eye, more blindness, yadda yadda yadda. Peaceful protests or demos are another thing entirely: they may not change a whole lot immediately, but they’re part of a process, and at the very least give you the chance to stand in a crowd of people who at least agree with you about this one issue. In general, most issues worth demonstrating about seem to be too complicated and too entrenched or controversial to be solved outright with a simple demonstration or “direct action,” anyway. It’s satisfying to wear a “Meat Is Murder” t-shirt or put a “Vegan” magnet on your car, but that’s more for the benefit of making other veg*ns feel less alone; it’s certainly not going to make anyone who eats meat stop and contemplate their choices. It’s much more likely to make them roll their eyes, or think, “Bossy pinko vegan commie twerp.” By and large, lasting change seems to come through peace and acceptance of others, while still being yourself as hard as you possibly can be, to show that, at the very least, the Other is not the same as the Enemy, or even necessarily the Weirdo Freak Who’s Kinda Scary. It helps if you can keep that in mind yourself, as well.

Oh my, that was quite preachy and snotty and holier-than-thou, wasn’t it? Meh. Chalk it up to the fact that my computer speakers are playing up, and I kept having to stop typing to duck under the computer table and fiddle with wires. Very distracting and disruptive to the thought-composing process, esp. when your thoughts about what you’re saying are kind of nebulous and swirly to begin with.

Okay, firstly, must remember that the screen is not a touchscreen like my PDA’s. Jabbing repeatedly at the little shuffle icon is pointless, and rather embarrassing.

Secondly, Fenric now contains 200 songs. I’d have put more on, but Nigel gets worried when I deviate so much from our evening schedule: I am supposed to be sitting on my end of the futon, reading, so he can be tucked in and sleep on the other end. When I sit at the computer instead, he stands there and stares at me and looks like he’s about to cry. Thus far, though, I’m generally pleased with the speed of ripping from CDs, and the transfer speed isn’t too bad, either. My main complaint is that it takes iTunes a while to react when I insert a new CD, but oh well.

Thirdly, for future music-shopping comfort and convenience, I must learn to write down the names of songs or bands I hear elsewhere and like. In the past two days, I have discovered, much to my chagrin, that the band formerly known as “That Band, You Know, The One I Rather Like” actually has a proper title,[1] and that the band I heard last month highlighted on NPR and fell in love with but promptly forgot all about is in fact the same one that people have been trying to prod me into listening to for the past three weeks or so.[2]

It works the other way, too. Last year I bought a CD from a band with the interesting name Nosferatu — not remembering that a compilation CD I’d bought previously had one of their songs, and I’d found it tiresome and pretentious. Unsurprisingly, I’m not terribly fond of the complete album, either.

I think I saw a mention somewhere (where? who knows) of some software that will let you tap out a rhythm and then will analyze what song you are probably trying to find. I don’t think that would be mighty enough to conquer my bandnomial aphasia. I need electrodes implanted in my brain or something. Or maybe I should just keep a pen and notepad handy as I drive around listening to the radio, so I can write down the names of groups I like.[3]

Or I could get a minion to follow me around and remind me that I liked x but not y. Damn, I must be getting old or something.

Fourthly, the manual disturbs me when it refers to “iPod” without the definite article. “Please do not eat iPod. Be sure not to insert iPod in your toaster. In case of interstellar abduction, iPod’s warranty will be voided.” iPod is creeping me out; was the manual written by Bob Dole or something?

***

[1] Muse, in this case. Thanks to Brian, who was kind enough to enlighten me.
[2] In this case, the Decemberists. Thanks to both David, who lent me the CD, and Brian, who reminded me of its existence.
[3] Sadly, my PDA’s note function will not work for this purpose. I’m not about to try navigating Atlanta traffic while trying to scribe on my PDA’s screen with the little stylus. Paper seems much safer. Well, comparatively.

Amazon said my iPod would probably get here between February 1 and February 7. It got here today, instead.

I have named him Fenric. Fenric the Bold. He is currently charging and having his software updated, and I am twitching with eagerness to start moving stuff over. Ooh! His little screen just lit up. He must be happy to see me.

How exciting. I must go rip some of my CDs so I’ll have exciting playlists to bore everyone with when they come back from the meeting, and maybe investigate some of the video downloads, too. Bwahahahaha!

In anticipation of my iPod’s arrival (ETA: circa the beginning of February), I finally downloaded iTunes and have been playing with it a little.

I find myself a bit confused by some of the categorizations. For instance, what the fack is the London Philharmonic Orchestra doing under “Alternative -> Goth Rock”? Is there something I’m missing? I mean, I’m sure it’s very nice music, but I wouldn’t describe it exactly as goth.

See here for the screenshot as evidence.

This does not inspire faith in iTunes’ accuracy.

• Vegetarian Guides - Vegan Passport
  How cool — a multilingual guide to requesting vegan meals in about a gazillion languages! (Even Esperanto, which is just so very Rimmer [from Red Dwarf].) Definitely going on my to-buy list.
  (tags: vegan passport travel translation)