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Nella - goddess of dynamite, ducks and dodgy songs
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| Filthy Rich |
[06 Sep 2008|06:59pm] |
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No, this is not a post imploring a certain comrade to have a bath. Instead, I wanted to put the message out that Wendy Holden is (at least for the time being) back on top form with her new book. The themes are money, sex and allotments, hence the title. A review quoted on the cover compares Holden to Jilly Cooper, which I think is rather insulting. Holden has a certain cutting wit that I've never spotted on my admittedly brief forays into Cooper's ouvre. When she's at her best, NOTHING is safe from having the piss taken out of it, especially if it happens to be something beloved of the posh or trendy. I say 'when she's at her best' because for the last few years Holden's books have been a bit of a mixed bag. The first three - Simply Divine, Bad Heir Day and Pastures Nouveaux - are absolutely brilliant. I picked up Simply Divine almost by accident in a charity shop in my first year at university, and was impressed enough to get the other two. Fame Fatale came out in paperback in my last year (very few authors warrant me buying hardbacks) and I bought it on a trip to Birmingham and read it when I was supposed to be packing my stuff to move out of my house. It was not worth the resulting packing frenzy in the small hours. The next one, Azure Like It, was pretty dire - luckily I only got it from the library. Wives of Bath (can't remember when it came out, but I got it either last summer or the one before) was approaching the standard of the first three, but I might not have appreciated it so much if it had been by another author - the Holden hallmarks kind of carried the whole thing. School for Husbands I haven't read. Filthy Rich, however, happened to be on display at the newsagents at Ipswich station when I had a bit of time to waste, and, while I'd have to read the first three books to be sure (not an easy task because Bad Heir Day seems to have vanished!), I think it is probably up to the original standard.
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| Increasing veganicity at TWotDL |
[04 Sep 2008|05:50pm] |
I've probably done more blogging over at Increasing Veganicity than here lately. I've almost certainly done more blogging about vegan stuff there and less here, which isn't surprising since it was sort of the idea of setting up another blog. But I know that this blog is just occasionally read by folks who are interested in the sort of stuff I prefer to write about over there, so here are some highlights.
My veganism
Why Vegan? Does what it says on the tin.
Food
Surprise, a vegan talking about food! Making tempura vegatables.
Another food post Dealing with dried foods - beans, lentils and couscous - and my attempts at making interesting packed lunches.
Cheating at veganism Basic ingredients to have in the kitchen.
Tofu is your friend (or at least not your enemy) Cooking tofu - links to a page with a better explanation.
Rarebitting on A recipe for vegan welsh rarebit. (Strangely, I never liked this stuff much when I ate dairy, but now it provides a solution to the problem of vegan cheese not melting on toast. And possibly a chance to drink beer.)
Salad for lunch! How to fill yourself up with raw veg.
Semi-raw satay salad dressing Part of what I had for lunch today.
Practicalities of veganism
Veganism and (in)convenience The difficulties of going vegan when you don't live in some kind of vegan bubble, and how to get around them.
Increasing veganicity in the bathroom A look at some vegan and non-animal-tested bathroom products.
Misc hits
Misplaced blame Veganism is NOT child abuse.
In the raw Commentary on an article which highlights a major difference between health vegans and animal rights ones.
Hey, folks? How to cope if you're friends with a vegan...
Talking veganicity - forums The lowdown on the various vegan message boards.
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| Ducks |
[02 Sep 2008|09:27pm] |
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More addictive stuff! I am at the stage with my chapter where small distractions are necessary for the preservation of sanity, though. Anyway, this is a lovely little game involving moving cute rubber duckies around. Best played with the sound on, as the classical music background adds an extra level of coolness. Plus, its worth playing until the end just to see the credits.
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| Need advice if you feel like giving it... |
[02 Sep 2008|02:38pm] |
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I know that several people on my f'list (and probably most of the world!) are more web-savvy than me. So, what's a good web hosting service? And a good place to get a domain name? If you know the price in English squids it would also be helpful.
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| Firefox... |
[31 Aug 2008|01:10pm] |
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As with movies and mobile phone networks, 'three' seems not to be a slightly unlucky number. Maybe it has all sorts of cool new features, but right now the loss of most of my drop-down menu and the changes in the toolbar are annoying me to the extent that I haven't noticed much else.
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| Meme |
[31 Aug 2008|12:05pm] |
Finally posting this after doing it several times - it gets rather addictive and I wanted to have the link to hand.
88
I might give up when I can get to a hundred...
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| Oh for fuck's fucking shitting pissing TWATTING sake... |
[27 Aug 2008|12:19pm] |
...is not something you will hear uttered by a character in a book by Jaqueline Wilson. She has, however met with controversy because a character in her most recent book My Sister Jodie uttered the word 'twat'. In subsequent print runs, the word will be replaced with 'twit'. Because obviously the teenagers and immediate pre-teens the book is aimed at have never heard the other word before...
Now, I'm no fan of 'twat' either as an insult or for that matter as a term for female genitalia. (I prefer 'cunt', to be honest, not that I'd ever recommend putting that in a book for children!) On the other hand, I've read the book in question. You are welcome to laugh at me for this. However, after a day of dealing with political theory and the ins and outs of Lenin, Marx, Bakunin and occasionally Zizek (now there's a twat...) I don't have the mental capacity for highbrow literature. Anyway, while I don't actually remember the word being used, I do remember the character who says it. He is not a nice character, nor one who readers are encouraged to like. He (sorry for any spoilers here!) gets off with girls much younger than himself and treats them like shit, and also likes killing badgers. So it isn't like any child would read the book and think 'this word must be ok because this really cool person says it.' And if a child does admire someone like that, then quite frankly it will take more than censoring a few mild four-letter words to help them.
Although I might not give any children I have access to some of the books I read in my pre-teen years, I probably wouldn't make much effort to actually restrict their access to anything that lived in the junior section of a library or bookshop. This is because I wasn't harmed by reading books that were a little 'old' for me, unless you consider being (more than) a tad foul-mouthed to constitute damage. The only book I remember being remotely traumatised by was Brother in the Land, a story about some teenagers who survive a nuclear war, and although it did contain mild swearing ('bloody' and so on) that was the least of the potential issues for an eight-year-old living right near an American airbase (ie bloody great potential nuclear target) in the 80s.
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| lj weirdness meme |
[24 Aug 2008|10:07am] |
Haven't done a meme for a while, and this one didn't take much effort.
So, nelsolidarida, your LiveJournal reveals...
You are... 6% unique (blame, for example, your interest in vegan wool) and 7% herdlike (partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy sewing). When it comes to friends you are normal. In terms of the way you relate to people, you are wary of trusting strangers. Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is conventional.
Your overall weirdness is: 29(The average level of weirdness is: 28.
You are weirder than 65% of other LJers.)
Find out what your weirdness level is!
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| Exercise |
[22 Aug 2008|08:29am] |
I have one of these things. Anyone who has visited me will testify that this is vastly my attitude to it.
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| Glitter rhymes with something, I'm sure |
[19 Aug 2008|06:04pm] |
Didn't know the age of consent was 18 in Vietnam? Hmm. Might be a better argument if the girls in question were even close to puberty. And as for wanting to come back to England to get medical treatment - let's hope they throw in an emergency dingalingectomy with the rest of the surgery. It's the least the NHS could do to help this poor oppressed sleazebag innocent victim of a conspiracy by 'you know who'. (Really Gary? Lord Voldemort molested those girls and blamed you? Keep taking the pills mate...)
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| One little triumph... |
[18 Aug 2008|10:06am] |
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I managed to wear internal earphones for the first time since getting my conch pierced. I think they are better quality than the ones I'd been using before the piercing - not only did they feel a lot better in, I also had the volume at 10-15 rather than the 25-30 (ie full) the old ones needed. That's better sound quality than the clip-on ones I'd been wearing up to this point.
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| Hey, I can see a new career option... |
[31 Jul 2008|03:52pm] |
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I'm noticing an increasing number of childrens' books where the title or overall theme involves bottoms, pants, toilets, poo and similar. Today's offering was 'The Bare Bum Gang'. I'm sure that when I was in the target age group I and most of my classmates were capable of making that sort of thing up for ourselves without adult help! And the appeal was largely in the subversive (or 'rude' in age-appropriate language) nature of such conversation (let alone putting it to paper) - surely something is lost when you can pick this sort of material up in Waterstones or, worse, Tesco?
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| Schiesse |
[28 Jul 2008|10:03pm] |
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Headline in today's Metro: 'Human sewage used for cereals'. I'd always wondered how those things turned the milk chocolatey...
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| Blah |
[24 Jul 2008|08:57am] |
The pro-GM crop scientist on the Today programme really annoyed me. Now, I have a fairly open mind about the wider GM issue. Much of my suspicion comes from the sort of companies that are involved, rather than the science itself. I have a hard time seeing why Monsanto would want to solve a global food crisis, for example. I don't buy GM food, but that's more along the lines of a boycott and an avoidance of actively supporting it rather than some idea that my body is particularly pure. I eat soy (albeit organic), drink coffee, use deodorant with aluminium in and am not particularly fussed about ingesting the odd artificial something-or-other (except sweeteners, they make me ill), so GM can join the queue on that score. I am, however, prepared to listen to the arguments on this issue.
So why did this particular scientist piss me off? Well, it was his brief exposition of one particular health benefit of GM food - the potential for adding essential fatty acids to plant matter which can currently only be found in fish oil. And, he says, this would help to conserve fish stocks. Now, I know that it is difficult to find a vegetarian source of these acids, but I also know that they can be found in flax. That may be known as linseed where you live or buy food. You can get the seeds themselves, or a powder. (some of my friends swear by the powder as a cooking ingredient - I'm not keen but will occasionally go on a health kick and buy some). These can be bought in health food shops, including Horrid and Bastard if you don't have anything else to hand, and also in Teh Evil Teh Sco. And, guess what? Eating these instead of fish will also help to stop said fish going extinct. See, that didn't take much gene-fiddling, did it?
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| Blah |
[12 Jul 2008|11:32pm] |
I am a whole lot more emo than I want to be right now.
On the plus side, this site is providing a welcome distraction from the emo-ness. Although I wish they would offer the option of duck poo.
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| Desperate enough to post a meme |
[10 Jul 2008|10:18pm] |
So, the ABCs of me...
( Rambling behind cut )
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| Random musings |
[30 Jun 2008|05:40pm] |
This post by Grace struck several chords with me. I have similar sentiments regarding my current city, although obviously it doesn't sound as cool to write it out.
Nail varnish remover is the biggest pain in the arse when packing to go on holiday. I've never really needed to carry it around before. But since Brighton strikes me as the kind of place I want to approach with painted nails, and no way will any of my nail varnishes last 7 days on my fingers without chipping (or being chewed, since i'm giving a conference paper en route!), some acetone will be necessary. That's without the possibility that i might want to change my nail colour at some point in the week. Why is it a pain in the arse? Well, you can't get it in small bottles, at least not in any of the places i could think of to look. And i know from the last time i tried this (admittedly twelve or thirteen years ago with a horribly virulent cheap remover) that putting it in another bottle can lead to that bottle melting rather messily and dumping said cheap virulent pink-dyed nail varnish remover all over one's bag. Even the more refined sort currently gracing my bathroom doesn't strike me as a wonderful thing to bring into contact with clean pants. And, annoyingly, there seem to be NO vegan nail varnish remover pads. Those things look like a brilliant idea, but I haven't found any without lanolin. So, it'll have to be a big bottle of nasty stuff sloshing around in my bag - what fun. If it leaks during my conference paper, i'll throw it at the first person to ask a hostile question.
I have a fun week planned despite this and other logistical issues. (Eg having to schlepp my rucksack containing six day's worth of stuff around while giving my paper cos i can't check into the hotel before 2 on Thursday. Or afford more than one night. And getting a train at 7am to arrive on time. And having to rush out at the end on Friday to get to Brighton in time to check into the hotel there. And hoping Gothling gets out of work on time. And being scared shitless of public speaking. You get the idea.) I have a cool-sounding conference to go to, followed by my first holiday with Gothling (not sure the odd night in a crappy London fleapit after a gig counts) somewhere i've always wanted to go.
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| My nostalgia doesn't exist |
[28 Jun 2008|10:30pm] |
Seriously. A casual search of youtube for scenes from The Lodge (ITV show in the early 1990s) revealed absolutely all of sod. So did a google search. There was one hit, on the Grange Hill website no less, as a couple of the actors had been in that as well. (probably most of them if you spend enough time looking - teenage actors weren't *that* plentiful in those days!) This also revealed that one guy had starred in Bluebirds (BBC late 80s sometime), which i'd also liked when it was on. Inspired, i googled that. No dice.
If i'd known the damn things were going to disappear, i'd have made more effort to learn to use the video at an earlier age!
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| On the art of hanging to redeem |
[28 Jun 2008|08:21pm] |
I like this:
For anyone who doesn't know, I am in fact firmly against the death penalty. However, I do have some level of respect for Pierrepoint's logic of making something which was, while intrinsically horrible, enshrined in the law of his time, as humane as possible. It is also common knowledge that he turned against the death penalty later in life, possibly as a result of being so deeply involved in it.
(Yes, I did work at PETA, although giving an award to Temple Grandin would not have occured to me.)
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| Return to Stepford |
[08 Jun 2008|09:19am] |
I've wanted to watch the original Stepford Wives movie for a long time, and last night it was on ITV3. The summary of my opinion: way better than the newer version of the film (reviewed here for those who love hearing my opinion on such things. WARNING: contains spoilers for that movie, the book and, for good measure, Harry Potter) but still not as good as the book. Maybe that's just my prejudice.
Anyway:
( Here be spoilerarge )
And because I'm generous like that:
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