The World Spins Madly On

This is an amazing graphic of the seismic activity in Canterbury this week. That is a LOT of earthquakes.

Here is some footage of the new Fault line.


And here's footage from a shop security camera.


I wonder what the new fault will mean in terms of NZ's geography. Is it just another point of stress relief for the Alpine Fault? Is it going to be a big deal in its own right? Will it mean a change of altitude on the Canterbury Plains? If so, higher or lower? Or is Aotearoa just wriggling a little in her sleep?

Bingo. One mouse corpse, surrounded by what I presume are fly cocoons. Although if you think I am going to google fly reproduction to check, I advise you to rethink your position.

I cannot express to you how grossed out I am. I intend to check under the bed as well, just in case. *shudder*

So that's my Sunday. How are you doing?

As of now anything you have posted on Livejournal runs the risk of being crossposted to Facebook and/or Twitter.

By default, you are opted out of this unless you enter your login details in the settings page. If you opt in, you need to make sure that your default setting is NOT to crosspost. Nonetheless, the option is there everytime you post a comment.

THIS INCLUDES F-LOCKED POSTS. Yeah, that's right. With a click of a button, someone can reply to a f-locked post and spread it all over Facebook and/or Twitter. For example, "Wow, Deb. Your sister sounds like a bitch.*" With a link to the post. Which, sure, is f-locked, but has nonetheless linked all of Facebook/Twitter to my journal. DO NOT WANT.

Take a moment to think about all the ways that could go horribly wrong. Especially if you have stuff in your LJ that you are very carefully keeping separate from the RL on Facebook. Do you talk about sexuality/gender issues on your LJ? Kinks that you would prefer your workmates not to know about? All over Facebook, baby.

They have also re-arranged the button order at the bottom of the page, so that anyone who is used to typing their comment, tabbing to the 'Post comment' button and hitting enter will now go to the Settings page. Oh, and your comment will have disappeared. Hope it wasn't a long, thought-out one! Mostly this is just a nuisance, but it's particularly an issue for anyone with problems like RSI, who avoid using a mouse where possible. Because you know, they really needed to have to overcome muscle memory for posting.

If you are running Firefox, you can get an extension that will remove the crosspost boxes from your comment box entirely. DisConnect. It will also work if you install it in Chrome.

I am really hoping LJ will create an option that allows you to make your journal uncrosspostable, but for now we're stuck.


And now for something completely different: I watch TV shows for the plot.




*I don't have a sister, so it seemed like a safe example

From the way the cat was carrying on last night, there is probably something small and dead somewhere in my bedroom. It is not, however, immediately obvious.

The thorough tidy up just got bumped up the priority list. Sigh.

There was something I needed to do this morning. I wonder what it was?

So, I am all membered up with the local Archaeological Society. Today I joined an excursion to an Iron Age hill fort and a 14th century castle. The guide was fantastic. He knew his stuff, and he loved his stuff. There is nothing better in a guide. Sadly, there is only one more excursion this summer and it is fully booked, but they do have lectures through the winter, which look really interesting. (Including one about the Salisbury Plain Military Training Area, which is interesting in itself, but apparently there will be an excursion there next year. The general public aren't allowed there, on account of the army making things go boom, so I'm quite excited about that one!)

On Monday I start their Dig course. People keep asking me if I'm going to be an archaeologist, and I keep saying no. I am, however, beginning to wonder whether I could find a career in it. Probably not as anything that requires an actual qualification, but... Well, it can't hurt to start putting out some feelers, can it?

Bath Uni does lectures on Wednesday afternoons, but none of them look particularly exciting. Maybe I should sign up for that Italian course at the college.


I shall leave you with this awesome vid of chicks being kick-arse. Oh man, Cut-Throat Island. Good times, lol.

Title: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
Vidder: damned_colonial, aka Skud
Fandom: Age of Sail multi-fandom (see notes below)
Notes:

My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone. I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists—I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them, that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will soon become objects of contempt.

-- Mary Wollstonecraft, "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman", 1792

Climbing went pretty well last night. I stuck to the 5As (the easy ones), but the last climb of the night was a lead climb, which is when you take the rope up with you clip in to the wall as you go. It was still a 5A climb, so the handholds were easy, but it's a much longer climb (12m) than the top-rope routes (where there is already a rope hanging from the top), and it was on a slight backwards incline. But I did it! \o/

There's a new sushi place opened in town. It's part of a chain, and although the presentation is very snappy, it's more expensive and just not quite as good as Yen. Yen > Yo. Which is good, because Yen is independent, and I like supporting independent places when I can.

I also scoped out a relatively new cafe, JikaJika. It's big and airy, and feels a bit funky. The food looks great (I only had a bit of flapjack, which was delicious) and, wait for it, they do Flat Whites. More to the point, they do good Flat Whites. HALLELUJAH. Because it turns out that it's not just nostalgia talking, New Zealand coffee really is that much better. But these guys meet my Standards For Coffee.

One of the ladies at work (OK, I don't work there anymore, but you know what I mean) is having a leaving lunch tomorrow, and wants me to go. I'm a little dubious. I kind of don't want to go back, but I like her and she was really supportive when I needed support. Ah, well. I shall just put my Big Girl Panties on and deal with it. It's not as though I don't like any of the people there. Just some of them. >_>

The garden is starting to look like less of a wilderness. It's amazing how overgrown it can get in just a few weeks!

In other news, the Conservative Culture Secretary is talking about reducing funding for the BBC. It used to be that we needed commercial media to protect us from the Government. These days we need Government funded media to protect us from gross commercialism. I hardly ever watch live TV, but I am happy to pay my TV licence fee (£11-12 per month) to have a station that a) doesn't have ads and b) will stand up for its right to screen things like Jerry Springer: The Musical. I don't care about the show itself, I care that the BBC used its funding to push some boundaries.

The thing that is particularly concerning is the inference that he is nosing around reducing the TV Licence, but finding ways to charge for watching things online. DO NOT WANT.

From the Guardian:
Hunt stressed his commitment to the licence fee. But he warned: "The way we collect it may have to be rethought, because technology is changing, a lot of people are watching TV on their PCs.

"We're not going to introduce a PC licence fee and that is something that I do need to have discussions with the BBC to see what their ideas are."

Other links:
From the Tory Blog website
From the BBC
From the Telegraph
It's under discussion here at ontd_political

Brits, there's a a prompt for contacting your MP here, should you wish to do so.

So, I went to New Zealand.

My little brother got married, I ate a lot of sushi, drank a lot of coffee and caught up with a lot of people. (Although not as many people as I had hoped, due to the weird scatteredness of my brain of late.) I had a lovely three weeks, in all. :o)

One friend pointed out that since my rent is paid till the end of August, I could probably afford to take some time out from the working world. I thought that was a bloody good idea, so I am going to spend the next three weeks getting myself over the jetlag and rounding up my brain from the various places to which it has wandered and generally doing a spring clean of my whole life.

One of the things I had forgotten about New Zealand is the amazing landscape. I was in my home town for two days. While I was there I took this shot of Mount Erin from Te Mata Peak. I kind of miss that light and the crazy crumpled land. I hadn't realised how much.

- Today is my last day at work. From tonight until 1 July I am officially on leave. It didn't occur to me until I was on the way home last night that when L asked me how I felt about leaving, she was probably expecting a response more along the lines of feeling sad and maybe a bit nervous than, "Yeah, great!"

- On Saturday I fly out to New Zealand. I will start out going to my parents' in Hawkes Bay, then we're all down to Hanmer Springs for my little brother's wedding, then up to Wellington on the 4th of July. If any South Islanders can/want to be in Christchurch on the 4th, I will see if I can get myself down there for a meet up before my flight. Wellingtonians - when are you free? I will be there from 5-16 July. Probably mostly staying with my friend J in Tawa, but if anyone really wants me... :oD

- Signal boost: Discussions about Social Justice tend to have their own language. I tend to read and not say a lot because of the likelihood of putting my foot in it. sihaya09 is looking at creating a Learner's Guide. At this stage she's looking for links. If you've got any suggestions, drop them in. If you're interested in learning more, keep an eye on her posts.

- Flatmate occasionally feels moved to buy those toilet-cleany things that you put in the tank to 'freshen' the toilet. It took me ages to realise why that really, really bothered me. It turns out to hearken back to my childhood, growing up in earthquake-prone New Zealand. We were taught very young about things to do in an emergency. One of the things we were taught was that in the event of a major civil emergency, like a big quake, where our facilities are cut off, the water in the toilet tank is clean and fresh, and can last you several days if you're careful. So it turns out that what's bothering me is that she's poisoned our emergency water supply. So there we go.

Hi everybody! Free internet at the hostel is a wonderful thing. :o) I'm not yet sure whether it outweighs sharing an 8 bed co-ed dorm for three nights - I'll have to come back to you on that one.

Meanwhile, sassafrassle and I have been having adventures! Many were of a Classics geek nature, but hiring a quad bike for a day and trekking all over Santorini was definitely an adventure by anyone's standards! As was the "two hour" walk from Fira to Oia along the coast. Try four and a half hours. And some of that path was more like goat track. Still, adventure! And lovely views!

We've done a quick spending spree through Naxos Town (we only had one afternoon, so weren't able to get to the rest of the island), and spent a couple of days on Mykonos, with a side trip to Delos.

Yesterday we got into Athens, and we spent most of today to the National Archaeological Museum, then Sass had to 'Split' (hahaha) to get her flight to Croatia. I went to the Temple of Zeus and took a lot of pictures of columns. I hope my dorm mates (all male so far with two beds still empty) aren't party animals, because I am getting up at sparrow's fart tomorrow morning to get up the Acropolis before the ravening hordes.

Anyone got hints and tips on CVs for agencies? Mine always comes out frightfully dull and list-like.

I have an awful lot of stuff to get done in the slightly less than two weeks in between getting back from Greece and leaving for Athens New Zealand (oops!).

I begin to babble. I will shut up and go check the f-list.

Hey kids. It's the Spring Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK. Three glorious days of weekend, much of which will inevitably be blighted by rain. Because that's just how it works.

Things on my plate for this weekend are:

- Dig up crappy side bed and plant foxgloves
- Re-pot basil
- Work out where to plant the oregano
- Do a quick weed now that it's under control
- Laundry
- Tidy my room. Again. Making mess is my superpower. What's yours? :oP
- Clean cat bowls
- Empty, clean and put away the litter tray (My cat poops outside! Hoorah!)
- Tidy my junk in the lounge
- Change sheets, air duvet
- Make some serious progress on the fandom thing

I think that's it for now. Better go get on with it. What are your plans?