Kaymyth

Bah. The image doesn't open for me. Just sits there with the load circle endlessly spinning.

Ohio's not that terrible; I have friends who live there. The winter would take some acclimating, but you'd do just fine. Or, you know, there's Kansas City. We do have this gem:

Cast your net far and wide. From what I hear from folks in the library world, it's not been easy to get a job in there for several years now. You may have to be willing to move quite a ways.

So, is it safe to say that you're ready to run the Pun Brigade out of town on a rail?

Fun fact: a spray bottle full of soapy water will take out wasps as effectively as Raid, with an added bonus of no pesticide pollution to the surrounding area. We used that trick on some paper wasps that had taken up residence in our garden hose housing last year.

Alas, I don't think everyone is quite all aboard with our talents.

Puns of such quality must be carefully engineered, you know.

Aww, Slowswift, you seem stressed. Do you need to blow off some steam?

On the bright side, that prof has definitely pegged you as a Douglas Adams fan.

Indeed. So the Doctor has married to the Doctor's daughter, who is also the Doctor's daughter. And now, the Doctor and the Doctor's daughter have a daughter, who is yet another Doctor's daughter.

I...don't know what you're talking about.

Gah! Sunscreen is your friend! You should use it! Now go bathe in some aloe and feel better.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm 5'6". I often think that my 6'2" husband just misses perfection by being about 4 inches too tall. I hate to have to crane my neck for kisses.

I do know quite a bit about music; I spent a good number of years as a music performance major before I finally accepted that I do not have the hand structure/joints to handle playing the oboe on a professional orchestra level. Basically, for those of you who are not familiar, time signatures are written in a format that looks like a fraction. The top number indicates how many beats per measure, and the bottom number indicates what type of note gets the beat. So, some examples: 4/4 time = four beats per measure, and the quarter note gets the beat. (1/4 = one quarter, get it?) 2/4 time = two beats per measure, and the quarter note gets the beat. 3/4 time = three beats per measure, and the quarter note gets the beat. 6/8 time = six beats per measure, and the eighth note gets the beat. 2/2 time (also known as cut time, and the signature that most marches are written in) = 2 beats per measure, and the half note gets the beat. Essentially, it's a really fast version of 4/4, written that way so that performers don't panic at the sight of lots and lots of sixteenth notes. Hearing the time changes can depend on a lot of factors. A switch from 4/4 to 2/4 could be nearly impossible to detect, while a switch from 4/4 to 6/8 is usually quite obvious. There's also a matter of which beats are emphasized in a measure; 3/4 can be counted one-and two-and three-and, while 6/8 is usually more of a 123, 456, 123, 456. So a lot of it is practice and familiarity, with a touch of "Did the composer actually make it easy to tell the difference?" There's actually a jazz piece called "Take Five" that's pretty popular - it's written in 5/4 time. A lot of folks don't realize how programmed they are to hear music in even time signatures until they hear a piece like that; it can mess with your head a bit until you get the rhythm down. And then....then there are the "modern" composers who like to write pieces that are seemingly designed to tax a musician to their limits. They're technical masterpieces, but are kind of horrible for the casual listener. I've played pieces written by people who seemingly believe that anyone who leaves the time signature the same for more than three measures straight isn't trying hard enough. So you'll get bits that go from 2/4 to 3/8 to 5/8 to 4/4, back to 5/8, down to 2/4 again, and then to 7/8, and just for giggles, a single measure of 1/2. These tend to be the same sorts of composers who think that tonality is for wusses, so the pieces are almost universally painful to play.

I...I am very glad that I have avoided the violent wildscape that is Tumblr. Eeesh. But yes, gender is much, much more complicated than a lot of folks think it is. I do have some sympathy for the scary Tumblr folks, because you do have to wonder what sort of horrible experiences they have had to leave them so badly damaged that they can't even handle an innocent, honest question without falling into a frothing rage. There is a lot of prejudice, and there are a lot of clueless overprivileged people who cannot fathom that anyone falls outside their precious little boxes, but understanding goes both ways. One does not get to say, "People need to understand me, but it is not my job to educate them how dare they not already know everything!" and still be walking the moral high road. The people in my life are a crazy dichotomy right now. One the one hand, I've got the person who was my first college boyfriend - she has just come out as trans, and my first reaction was, "Yeah, I can see that." And then I've got my brother posting some seriously transphobic drivel on his Facebook, and my mom and aunt have actually been liking the posts, and I just have to keep my mouth shut lest I kick off a family war. So I left my family completely out of my housewarming party, because there is no way that I am letting that crap loose amongst my (super-liberal, many on the LGBT spectrum) friends. No. So much no. The relatives aren't all bad; my dad's family and my in-laws are much easier people for me to be around. And as to the housewarming, we actually never wound up firing up a single video game. Mostly, we hung around and chatted, and then finished up the night with a rousing 2 1/2 hour game of Cards Against Humanity. And for those of you who have the game, I highly recommend adding this customized card to your black card stack: __________, __________. A Jedi craves not these things.

Ugh. Grass allergies + lawn mowing = total respiratory destruction.

We've got a good few, but the ones that are best for groups are Boom Blox and Rayman: Raving Rabbids. If we're feeling really crazy, we might crack out Mario Kart. The other TV will have the classic NES and the Atari Throwback hooked up to it, and we've got a couple of areas for board games, too.

It is, at least, tasty. Should make for a good party. I can't wait to watch my friends try to play Wii games while tipsy.

Oh, the joys of experimental recipes. We're having a housewarming party tonight, and I have made All The Things. Rule #1: Do not trust recipes on Pinterest. Nobody there knows what the heck they are doing. My Pina Colada pudding shooters turned out to more of a violently alcoholic pina colada-flavored cool whip. So....I guess we now have an adult garnish for the fruit salad. I was wiser on the chocolate ones and used about 1/4th the cool whip - turned out much better. And the leftover cool whip can be an under-21 garnish for the fruit salad.

I had my own visit from the Weird Dream Fairy last night. It started out with me wandering with unnamed friends around an amalgamation of a hotel and outdoor mall. I believe that there was a sci-fi convention involved, as well as an attempted retrieval of things. These things might have been light bulbs and/or salad tongs. (I swear, it made sense in context. Somehow.) Then, as we were walking outside on the sidewalk, a man with a gun jumped out. I remember recognizing him as an enemy. He wanted me to do something or give him something, and I refused. He pointed the gun at me, and I refused again. While he was about ten feet away from me, his arm was freakishly long, so I was able to grab his hand and point the gun away from me before he fired. We wrestled a bit, with him trying to re-point it at me, and me preventing it. It fired two more times before I was finally able to wrestle it out of his weird, spindly fingers. So now I was pointing it at him, and I was certain that he was a Very Bad Person who would potentially destroy the world if I didn't take him down then. So I fired. Only then, he pulled sort of the same move that Bloody Tam pulled on Wax, and I shot one of my friends instead, the bullet flying right into her screaming mouth, at which point my dream-rewind tried to kick in. The bullet came back out, bounced harmlessly off of my stomach, and then flew back into her mouth, lodging inside. But she was fine, and now had a beer tap that had sprouted out of the back of her head from the bullet. Yes. A beer tap. On the back of her head. No, I have no idea what's wrong with me.

Speaking as a female who thoroughly enjoys the Dresden Files novels, I've always gotten the impression that it's meant to be a character flaw of Harry's. Yes, he's got an overdeveloped sense of chivalry - and it has consequences of annoying the heck out of the quite capable females he knows. It's also backfired on him once or twice where he's had a genuine reason to keep the mortal person out of mortal danger, and they ignore him because they chalk it up to his standard overprotectiveness. He does learn and get better about it over time.

We are both ambrosia to the bloodsuckers. Yet more proof of our sooper seekrit siblinghood. Unfortunately, I can't take Benadryl during the day. You know that cartoony joke of people so tired that they faceplant into their food? Yeah, it does that to me. But at night, oh yes, it is glorious. It keeps me from scratching in my sleep. Yes, they are. Horrible little vampires that leave itchiness and wails of despair in their wake.

Venturing outside the realm of "real" metals, and into getting ahold of shavings that look real enough for cosplay purposes, you could get some of the metal shavings from the key cutting machine at the local hardware store.

Whilst watching the fireflies tonight, I apparently got devoured by the less-favored of the insect kingdom. Apparently to a mosquito, I am infinitely more delicious than anyone else in range. (Husband might've gotten two bites. I have lovely new red welts up and down my legs.) The initial reaction has settled, which means I now have approximately 12 hours before my life becomes three days of itching. And not just any itching, but the sort of itching that makes me want to claw my skin off, because the pain of opening up bleeding holes on my legs feels better. Yep. It'll be Benadryl for sleeping for the next few nights.