World keeps spinning

...and sometimes that's a good thing.

What a difference a few days makes.

Still in pain, but screw it, I've got better things to do. Lots of changes that were slowly building have suddenly crested. Time to surf the wave, baby!

Moving, jewellery business, working more, getting off meds, even becoming a moderator again. I swore I would not do it, that last one! In the end I volunteered. Can't escape your own nature. Maybe mine's not that bad after all.

Ignoring the greater outside world helps. Paying too much attention to all the horrors I can't do anything about is unbearable. Fix myself first, then I'll get to the rest of you.

Ten Years Today

Ten goddamn years of constant preschooler-like nerve endings demanding attention, pinching & punching me when I shrug helplessly, "I don't know what you want!"

Ten years of carefully planning each venture out because just shopping a string of four outlet stores in one day means being unable to move without doing the old-lady shuffle the next day, and the next day, and the day after that.

Ten years of feeling like a complete fuckup because I'm not pursuing a proper career, unable even to hold a full-time job, not only because of the pain but more because of the brutal, crushing fatigue, in spite of sleeping on average 11 hours a day and up to 17 some days. And it was days — sleep inversion happened almost automatically, no matter how often I struggled to get back to a proper awake during the day/asleep at night pattern.

Difficult to have a social life under these conditions: "Hi, how are you?" "In extreme agony, thanks." "Oh. Yes. Well. What are you doing?" "Uhh...Sleeping, mostly. And you?"

Not much has changed since this time last year, except that life has blessed me with constant vertigo as well. Sometimes I really hate meatspace.

I think the "how my life is improving" part of this post will have to wait for another time.

He said it!

John Lithgow is in England to work with the RSC right now, playing Malvolia in Twelfth Night. His fellow cast members are teaching him the joys of cricket, and he so somehow he ended up the lunchtime interview guest on Radio Five Live Sports Extra Live Test Match Special (yes, "Live" twice in the full title) on Sunday.

The host obviously didn't know much of Lithgow's brilliant work, but luckily TMS takes emails from listeners. One of them tried this claim: "I'm one of the biggest if not only fans of the film Buckaroo Banzai—". Lithgow didn't even allow the announcer to finish reading the letter before replying, "Oh, no, he is in the company of millions of very, very weird people." He takes a moment to explain the film to the unenlightend host then continues, "It is one of my favourite films too. It's completely zonked out." He then describes his character and in a moment, he says it! And I recorded it!! *

Overall, Lithgow proved to be a more than amiable guest, an enthusiastic learner of all things cricket, and an engaging speaker. If I hadn't already been a fan, this interview would have made me one. Full Lithgow Segment. (mp3, 34.3 Mb)

From the previous day:
Preview Patter (mp3, 1.2 Mb)
Shashi Thoroor (mp3, 30Mb)

Other TMS interviews online from the BBC site:
Daniel Radcliffe at Lord's
Johnny Borrell (of Razorlight) at Lord's



*I don't know why it loops like that. The version I uploaded did not.

Carrot or Stick

Calgary commuters going green, says study

Calgary residents may still love their cars, but more are walking, cycling or taking transit downtown than are driving, according to a new study by the city.

The report shows 55 per cent of morning commuters arrive on foot, bike or transit. That's up from less than 40 per cent a decade ago, said John Hubble, the city's transportation manager.

"The community has put a lot of investment into public transportation and I think these numbers validate that investment and they show that we are on the right track," he said.

[snip]

"Colleen McCracken, a spokeswoman with local environmental group Sustainable Calgary, said people are ditching their cars because they are too expensive to run, parking is expensive and traffic is terrible.

"I am not sure if the city can take credit for this in their policies, but I think people are changing and it's up to the city to catch up to that change."

This would all have happened a lot sooner if we'd been paying the true monetary cost of being a fossil fuel society.

I've lived here since 1992 and never owned a car. Only three things can momentarily make me wish I had one: missing a bus (and thus knowing I'll not catch the connections and be late for an appointment. Happened yesterday with the bus pulling away from the corner as I was crossing the street to get to it. Bastard driver, who idled there for minutes before the light changed, saw me running to get to it, I know it!), wanting to go to Banff for the afternoon, or needing to lug home a purchase from IKEA.

Mindgrope

I get all sorts of Google Alerts. Some to keep track of friends' reviews, others to check for new releases from favourite authors, musicians, etc., but the primary one is for Toby Stephens. ( to all the Tobettes for whom that just triggered an Alert as well. Thanks for stopping by the new digs. Please excuse the bare walls; I haven't decorated yet, except for winam's beautiful photo.)
But I also track my own name (names, actually, both my full real name and my nickname), just to see where it shows up. So when this

Google Web Alert for: snowsim

Toby Stephens [Powered by Invision Power Board]
Snowsim - in this post you can clearly see what I was deleting!
... Many thanks, Snowsim & Cupcake! I think I've
got it now! ...

---

 This as-it-happens Google Alert is brought to you by Google.

showed up, my brain shorted out for a few seconds.

The strangest thing is, when I followed the link, it turned out to be a mutant version of the board.
Very odd.

Blue Sand

Farewell Spit, originally uploaded by Winam.

Now, jumping through most of Winam's entire "New Zealand 2004" set had already made my jaw bounce painfully off my desk as it dropped. Incredible beauty. But this. You just don't expect to come across images like this outside of dreams.

No need for a God

We can make this ourselves.
Anna Olson's Cappuccino Ice Cream Cake

The transition begins

I haven't even finished the "So Long LJ" post yet and here I am fiddling with Blogger.

Playing with the colours is fun, though.