The winner of the ham battle is you!

kerrypolka @ 2012-02-16T10:02:00

2012-02-16T10:04:28Z

Does anyone know whether there's a full transcript of Giles Fraser and Richard Dawkins' discussion on Radio 4 on Tuesday? It was only six or seven minutes.

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London events mailing list

2012-02-13T16:04:56Z

I'd like to set up a mailing list for people who live in London who might be interested in emails like "I'm going to see Antigone with Christopher Eccleston at the NT in March, who wants to come?" or "Who's up for the British Museum exhibition on the hajj and when can you go?" as well as "I suddenly fancy a readthrough of Twelfth Night, who's free this weekend?"

(Previously I have been doing basically this, but with a random scattering of people I can remember at the time of actually sending the email.)

I spent 45 minutes at lunch trying to figure out how to do this on my own, but eventually gave up and registered a Google group. Which leads me to two questions:

1)

View Poll: #9515

2) Is there a free and easy (<20min) way to set up a mailing/discussion list I have missed, or should I give up and go for Google? I have a fully hosted domain with Wordpress, so I don't know if there's a way to do something there.

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DEAR AUTHOR!

2012-02-08T22:21:14Z

Hi! Argh sorry I kind of signed up in a hurry and now I am writing my letter in a hurry but that's ALL FINE ISN'T IT (no it's not). I am actually mostly C&Ping from previous letters because er I'm sorry, my tastes remain embarrassingly the same. :( THANK YOU SO MUCH author! I don't deserve you!

The Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke
Miriam Montefiore, David Montefiore

OK, so one of these people doesn't even technically appear in the story? But I would very much like a story about well-off 18th-century British Jews in the fantastic world the stories are set in, and what Anglo-Jewry thinks about magic and magicians (and vice-versa). I would especially like to hear more about Miriam Montefiore - basically anything you can think of for her to do will make me happy!

If you offered this one, don't know Thing One about Anglo-Jewry (or any kind of Jewry) and don't have time to swot up, DO NOT FEAR! I also like comedy! The Adventures Of Tom Brightwind And David Montefiore Ticking Off 18th-Century Historical Figures is a great setup and I would love to read more in the same vein.

True Grit (2010 film)
Mattie Ross, LaBoeuf

1) I WANT THEM TO KISS.

Now that that's out of the way: so, I like that they both have big ideals and are proud and excited about going on giant adventures. I like that Mattie is very devout and religiously literate (as you'd expect from a 19th-century American Presbyterian), but that her primary motivation seems to be vindictiveness, and I like that LaBoeuf thinks of himself as a lean mean tracking machine but spends so much time checking out his reflection in his spurs.

I wouldn't enjoy reading at length about Mattie brooding over her disability; I would love to read about the secret advantages of having one arm as a young woman banker. If you're uncomfortable with a romance between Mattie and LaBoeuf, I would be really keen on gen about Mattie taking over the bank she owns by the epilogue (book canon), and generally carrying on being awesome and completely self-assured to the point of epic stubbornness.

Basically, Mattie is hilariously single-minded and has a giant blind spot about herself and seems quite happy. I would like to read more of that.

Hebrew Bible
First of all I am really really into the book of Judith (see number 3 here for my Dear Author letter about her!), but other favourites include Rebecca, Tzipporah, Jonah (actually having typed that I would love to read about an awkward grumpy female Jonah, omg), Vashti and Esther (seasonally appropriate!). I tend to prefer the mythic-type-stories to the historic-type-stories, and I really really love AUs.

The X-Files
I saw this on the signup list and went "aww, 90s television, what the hell!" My favourite episodes by a long, long shot are Bad Blood and The Unnatural, and basically I like Scully and Mulder being giant dorks who like each other but can't resist needling each other for fun. I would love that dynamic at "Mulder Hosts A Purim Party (And It All Goes Wrong)", "Scully Feels A Bit Bad That Mulder's Family Are All Dead And Tries To Host A Seder (And It All Goes Wrong)", "'Diversity Day' At The FBI Pointedly Coincides With Hanukkah, Leaving Everyone Grumpy Until They Go Get Drunk", etc. Basically character comedy please, and if there is bonus Krycek and/or Skinner that would be amaaaazing.

GENERALLY:

I like: self-confident active (and activist) women, men who like active activist women, women who like each other, platonic affectionate friendships, jokes, explosions, dancing, casual multiculturalism, angry idealism, optimistic history, strong settings and places, good alcohol, good music, sex comedy, danger, road trips, bars in space stations, everyday details, arguing, making out in libraries, bluffing, dressing up (disguises, formal wear, costumes, etc), heists, kissing, Bruce Springsteen, ragtag bunches of ____, trains, revolutionaries, progressive religion, impromptu music sessions, globe-hopping, party guests with secret agendas, pocket pistols.

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what just happened to me

2012-02-08T14:59:56Z

Hi internet! I have a half-written post on the past week on my laptop at home (spoiler: it has been really nice!), but today I am posting about The Globe. Specifically, the Globe-to-Globe project where lots of Shakespeare in lots of different languages happens, and how I spent my lunch hour buying tickets and about halfway through dissolving into a kind of trance where I just clicked on things and went "what the hell! It's only £5!" and emerged blinking at the end of it wondering WHAT HAVE I JUST DONE.

( I now have tickets for (in chronological order)! the following: )

I also have a ticket to go see Complicite's take on The Master and Margarita at the Barbican in March. Who needs to pay off their student loans eh, clearly NOT ME.

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101 Books: 18-26

2012-01-30T09:59:35Z

Books 18-26 of my 101 books in 1001 days project.

( 18. The Pact, Jennifer Sturman )
( 19. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede )
( 20. Over Sea, Under Stone, Susan Cooper )
( 21. My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism, Andrew Marr )
( 22. The Dark is Rising, Susan Cooper )
( 23. Subversive Sequels in the Bible, Judy Klitsner )
( 24. Monstrous Regiment, Laurie R. King )
( 25. Riders, Jilly Cooper )
( 26. Un Lun Dun, China Mieville )

The problem with the Kindle is that I have about six books on the go now, and switch back and forth depending on my mood, so I'm about 60% through a handful of novels but close to finishing none of them. The next few weeks I have made a pledge not to start any more books until I have finished all the ones I have on the go!

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C'est assez pour une fois: allons-nous a "diner".

2012-01-26T12:28:07Z

Man Bardcamp was amaaaaazing, I am going to post a giant post as soon as the pictures are up HINT HINT mirabehn AND mostlyacat.

Although I did feel a bit knocked-out and less INTO IT than I wish I had been; I was ill all through the first night, and although I love the late-night partying and singing and games-playing, starting the weekend out with dehydration and a massive sleep deficit didn't do me any favours later on! But I still had a great time even if I did have to sneak off in the middle of Richard III for a nap before I passed out onstage. ANYWAY. Pictures and boring notes about my favourite ad-libs and character moments to come (HINT HINT mirabehn AND mostlyacat).

Currently I'm trying to fill out my performance review form. I actually really love performance reviews (I get to talk about how great I am and someone else is paid to listen and give feedback! How is this not amazing?!), but this year I'm working on tactics for getting what I want, which are in the following order:

a promotion

more compensation, either in pay (HAH!) or eg more holiday time

skills I can use to apply for better jobs, namely:

internet knowings (so I can start reasonably applying for web editor jobs)
writing (so I can go 'look, people have paid me to write things, therefore you should pay me to do that too')
process management (if they let me do more of this, it has the side effect of my possibly being able to mitigate some of the stonkingly stupid decisions of upper management, although considering my manager has been trying to do this for years it seems unlikely)

So I'm currently trying to fit "I want a new title (and also more things to do) and also to learn how to make the internet happen and oh yeah I want to write things too" into a coherent Development Plan. Especially since I'm not really fussed about which one to focus on: if they let me write things I'd be happy to learn computer things at home, and vice versa.

In sadder news, the Pod they are building across the street from my office STILL HAS NOT OPENED. It has been 'coming soon' for at least six weeks! SIX WEEKS! The nearest Pod is like EIGHT MINUTES away! WAH.

atreic tipped me off about this amazing-looking book that seems to have been pulled from the inside of my head without knowing: Religion For Atheists by Alain de Botton. It comes out today (hurrah!) - I foolishly ordered it off Amazon when obviously I could have just bought it from a shop today and had it RIGHTNOW.

Yesterday when I was searching for bad fiction about the Wars of the Roses on Amazon to get my Histories fix, I found this self-published gem: RED & WHITE Interwining, which is amazing so far. Richard of York goes to help pick up Margaret of Anjou from France, and they FALL IN LOVE, or at least so far have spent like 50 pages awkwardly swooning at each other while Margaret speaks in a "French accent" that is strangely Germanic (keep all comments about last weekend's Constable of ~~Bavaria~~ ~~Sweden~~ France to yourselves, peanut gallery). IT IS GREAT. I bet they do it and then she breaks his heart and then Richard decides to become king just to spite her.

(It has also brought back my Thoughts about how the internet's Shakespeare fandom writes fic that is as good if not more so than the profic you see, and I would totally have purchased every fic on for a similar price, and how many Shakespeare fic writers are academics and I'm sure could use the extra income, and although there are clearly Issues with monetizing fanworks in general, slapping Shakespeare fanfiction up somewhere people can pay a nominal sum for it is something loads of people are doing already so why not get in on it, but maybe everyone else has already thought about this and decided against it so it's a moot point anyway.)

View Poll: #9248

View Poll: #9249

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Coriolanus and Bardcamp

2012-01-18T23:53:30Z

Ugh, I am so cross I didn't smugly post about seeing Ralph Fiennes' film of Coriolanus when I went to the premiere at the London Film Festival back in October. Oh well, pretend I did that. It was awesome. Gerard Butler was really amazingly good as Aufidius, as was Vanessa Redgrave as Volumnia, and poor Jessica Chastain does the best you can with Virgilia. Ralph Fiennes is Ralph Fiennes-y, but in my opinion it's all about Gerard Butler. The setting is also great, and the Citizens especially are really well realised. GO SEE IT BASICALLY. It's a good film of a hard but rewarding play.

This weekend is Bardcamp, and we're doing the histories, and I'm playing John of Lancaster and Margaret of Anjou! :D :D :D I have been so busy wrt house-moving that I haven't really prepared properly, but really HAVE I NOT BEEN PREPARING FOR THE PAST SEVEN YEARS. YES.

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CheapestRemovals stole our DVDs

2012-01-16T12:00:26Z

It looks like our moving company may have nicked a box of DVDs (at least; we haven't yet unpacked everything and don't know whether eg any books are missing either).

The company was CheapestRemovals (yes, I know; they had very good feedback on Qype!), and we booked them for 9am on Sunday morning. They called at 5pm on Saturday evening to see whether we could push the appoinment back to 2pm. I hemmed and hawed, and said I'd think about it; they called back ten minutes later to say "please can you do 2pm, we'll give you a 15% discount", so I said sure.

Despite this two men and a van turned up at 9am on Sunday, when we were still in our dressing gowns and only about 70% packed. We quickly threw lots of things into boxes, while they complained that they'd been told we only had 25 boxes, instead of ~50. We had never told them any figure of boxes; when I booked I said "it's one bedroom with no furniture except a mattress and some bookcases", which was accurate.

They said we'd have to pay them more because the number of boxes was more than they'd been told, and it had taken longer than expected. The latter was true; I had booked them for two hours, but because we had to spend a lot of time packing up after 9am because they'd come five hours early, it took two hours forty minutes rather than two hours.

I called the head office and they confirmed that we would have to pay more money (they'd quoted us £65, including the discount they'd offered, and then asked for £105). I didn't challenge this like I should have, and we paid them. We gave them a large tip as well because of feeling pressured by their complaining about the number of boxes.

On Monday we discovered the box of DVDs was missing. At first I thought it had been left at the Nunhead house, because the DVDs had been packed early and I thought they maybe hadn't been out with the other boxes, but Ewan has searched the house pretty thoroughly and they aren't there.

I don't know what our options are; I called the moving company, and after a few hours they called back to say there hadn't been anything left on the truck and that Ewan and I had been with the movers the whole time (Ewan rode over with them, but I didn't). I asked for more details and mentioned I'd be filing a police report, and they said they'd get back to me via email.

I don't know if I can actually file a police report. We have a list of DVDs we know we own(ed), but didn't catalogue the boxes carefully as we were rushing around to pack everything in time. If I were very cynical I'd say they moved the times around to catch us unprepared so we wouldn't track our boxes carefully, but they are probably just incompetent.

It's very frustrating.

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hi!

2012-01-06T07:29:57Z

IT'S EARLY. My US -> UK jet lag is less bad than I anticipated so far, but we'll see how I'm feeling around 3pm. :/

We are completing on our house today! We move on Sunday and most of our things are packed. We won't have internet for the first two weeks, which is TRAGIC but we really should have called earlier eh oh well. Other things we won't have right away include:

a fridge or freezer

a washing machine

££ to acquire either of those before the end of the month without falling behind on my student loan payments

BUT I'M SURE IT WILL ALL BE FINE.

I have spent the past two weeks in Portland OR with my family, and it was an extremely successful trip I think! Firstly, my family isn't as bad as many - it is of course bonkers as all families are, but it is bonkers in a loving way that evinces itself in eg spontaneous rounds of applause at someone opening a gifted pair of socks and taking 500000 photographs of everything, rather than eg malicious emotional manipulation or anything like that. (My grandmother does tend to nick people's wine - as in, I have turned around to talk to someone and turned back to see her replacing my now-empty wine glass in front of me, having dumped its contents into her glass - but I think that falls under Lovable Quirk.)

I want to do a bigger post about it later because I did many fun things and met up with many good people. We came back bearing a pound of See's candy which is excellent. I'm going into work today, which in retrospect was a kind of foolish decision, as again I'm sure I'm going to be falling asleep at my desk in the afternoon.

Hi Britain, it is nice to be back!

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kerrypolka @ 2012-01-01T10:51:00

2012-01-01T18:51:13Z

Man, Firefly is a much more misogynist show than I remembered. :(

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man I just have to say

2012-01-01T07:59:08Z

I know it's been a difficult year for a lot of people. But gosh, 2011 was an amazingly brilliant year for me. I became Jewish; I asked for and was given a lot more responsibility in my job, and was really great at it; I threw a great, fun wedding with Ewan; and more generally I clarified for myself a massive amount of things I want to do (and things I thought I wanted to do but don't really), and made a pretty good LIFE PLAN TM for the next ~2-3 years on how to do those, and kind of how to be a better person generally. (I did most of this at Jew Year's Resolutions on Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur, FWIW, but not all.)

I also helped fix some things I thought were irreparably ruined and got a lot better at keeping things I value and paring off habits that are basically useless (if deceptively fun). I made a lot of progress on figuring my Neurology Thing That's Been A Question Since I Was 13, and even though it's not sorted yet it's still a lot farther along than it has been for the past 12 years.

That all sounds a bit BORING but the gist is 2011 was an excellent year of figuring out how to become the person I want to be and do things I want to do. I had several exciting starting-off-on-journeys new-identity ritual markers, and I'm happy with all of them so far. BRING ON 2012 I AM READY FOR YOU AND THE REST OF MY LIFE. And for all of you who've had a more unpleasant year, I hope 2012 is much better. ♥

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Misconceptions....

2011-12-12T22:31:33Z

...which I've been seeing and/or hearing fairly often recently, and which are (or should be) easy to correct:

1. Jews for Jesus is not a Jewish group or movement; it is an evangelical Christian movement aimed at converting Jews to Christianity. I know, it sounds really nice and interfaith and chilled out! IT ISN'T. :(

2. Judith didn't feed anybody cheese to make them sleepy so she could kill them. Yael fed someone dairy products to make them sleepy so she could kill them. Judith fed someone wine to make them sleepy so she could kill them.

Any others? (don't have to be Jewy!)

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#goodjournalism

2011-12-09T10:11:15Z

You know what, nearly three years later, local newspaper gem Whitstable mum in custard shortage is still basically brilliant. Outstanding work, bored reporter. Just outstanding.

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'Pop' what...'pop' what? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY?!

2011-11-30T15:45:43Z

Blerp, what have I been up to recently?

~~Last weekend~~ Two weekends ago many friends went to a big house in Derbyshire to readthrough Buffy season 5. It was lots of fun, as readthrough weekends always are, even if my part (Dawn) was a bit difficult due to being written like an eight-year-old (I ended up giving her a smoking habit and trying hard to hit "angry" instead of "whiny"). Anyway, it was fun! I made a taco bar and nachos for 16 people, which is more people than I have ever catered for, and it was successful! Go team.

Last Wednesday I had cocktails and dinner with kake and liv at Shaker & Co and Mestizo, which are conveniently about 5 metres away from each other on Hampstead Road. We ended the evening with a half pint at the Cider Tap (for Liv and Kake) and a snifter of calvados for me, which was onyl served after the woman behind the bar earnestly explained that calvados wasn't actually a kind of cider and did I understand it would come in a smaller glass?

Thursday joran_j and I had a mini CV workshop where we read each others' resumes and edited them, which was really good fun actually. I like applying for jobs because of the ~possibilities~ (both for exciting career development and for ££), and although obviously getting rejected is no fun I do like putting together DEAR WORLD, THIS IS WHY I AM GREAT AND YOU WOULD BE AN IDIOT NOT TO HIRE ME packages.

Friday was the official farewell Shabbat potluck dinner for one of my rabbis, who is leaving our congregation to become not-Chief-Rabbi of the Reform movement [warning: world's worst first line, ignore it and keep reading], which (1) good luck to her etc. but (2) WAAAAAH. There were some genius musical performances (our tall dignified senior rabbi going to town with the maracas on "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" will be an enduring memory), some delicious food, and some really iffy kosher wine. As is traditional.

Saturday afternoon Meg winolj and I went to see Playboy of the Western World at the Old Vic, which was really well-produced and quite funny. I didn't know much about it before seeing it, but I had the impression it was a bittersweet pastoral tragedy for some reason. It is in fact hilarious, and the langague is really good quality as well. Ruth Negga was especially good as Pegeen (I saw her as Ophelia in the Rory Kinnear Hamlet and she was pretty fab in that, too). Returned home to clean the house and putter around a bit before...

...hosting a Thanksgiving roast with a real turkey and everything on Sunday afternoon! I'm afraid I was pretty rude and spent most of the time in the kitchen, and then spent maybe 90 minutes socialising before I traipsed upstairs and fell asleep at about 8pm. As is traditional, shut up. The turkey came out brilliantly – with a big thanks to borusa for carving it after the_alchemist, Robin and I tried to figure it out via YouTube videos and failed – ixwin's pecan pie was AMAZING, people went "hey! this marshmallow-and-sweet-potato thing works really well!" (OF COURSE IT DOES), all the other food turned out really nicely and people kept bringing fizzy wine. There were not too many people and too little food, which I had fretted about. Next time I will try to figure out how to schedule the cooking so I can actually talk to people during.

The past two Tuesdays have been this really great theology-and-practice discussion group led by my sponsoring rabbi about (broadly) personal autonomy as a religious value and what that means in the context of covenental theology. It has been exactly the kind of thing I like to do for fun and kind of want to do forever, and last week I decided I would actually like to do a taught MA in Jew Stuff at some point sooner rather than later (I've been telling myself, "no, self, you can go to rabbi school as a second career thing if you still want it when you're Old!"). I may save up and do it as a 30th birthday present for myself. I was going to do this for laser eye surgery but I think I would enjoy a year of full-on Jew Studying more. I have many Feelings(tm) about this but I will save them for a later post.

And in the future!

Thursday: pub quiz about London, maps and London maps

Friday: sparkling vampires

Saturday: PACKING UP ALL MY POSSESSIONS because we are THEORETICALLY MOVING SOON FINGERS CROSSED

Sunday: Yuletide writing in a pub

Tuesday: cocktails and dinner at the new Hawksmoor with wildeabandon

Thursday: an exhibition including some of Robert's wedding pictures of me in Shoreditch and free booze (woop)

Saturday: I am giving dvar Torah (a talk about the week's Torah reading) in the morning service; going on a Tube walk in High Barnet; and going to lavendersparkle and alec_corio's Christmakkuh party

Sunday: big group pub Christmas lunch in Clerkenwell and a giant folk fiddle session party at Cecil Sharp House

There are many other things coming up but I will stop there. Also today is payday! HURRAH MONEY.

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Life in the UK

2011-11-18T11:01:25Z

I had this this morning and passed it! The last time they didn't let me take it because of dickish admin things, but this morning I was SO READY. I'd spent the morning fretting at Ewan and bursting into tears over breakfast, but then he had me do a practice test out of the study guide right before going in, and I scored 100% and felt much better.

For the record: it is silly and the answers were nearly all immediately obvious (I made three guesses, all on things like "What percentage of schoolchildren attend public schools?"), but as I was cramming I did appreciate that most of the information it asks immigrants to learn is quite important. Things like how to buy and rent a house, what's illegal for an employer to ask you to do, parents' responsibilities wrt school-aged children, etc. Some of it is ridiculous (and indeed factually inaccurate) but I agree that a lot of it is actually pretty necessary.

And that's the REAL lesson of the Life in the UK test.

Celebration booze time! :D

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Dear Yuletide Writer

2011-11-16T20:42:38Z

Hello! First, thank you very much for writing my story! I don't actually really have that much to say outside of my requests already made, but here goes:

( The Ladies of Grace Adieu - Susanna Clarke )

( True Grit (2010 film) )

( Sally Lockhart - Philip Pullman )

GENERALLY

I like: self-confident active (and activist) women, men who like active activist women, women who like each other, jokes, explosions, dancing, casual multiculturalism, angry idealism, optimistic history, strong settings and places, booze, sex comedy, danger, road trips, bars in space stations, everyday details, arguing, airships, making out in libraries, bluffing, dressing up (disguises, formal wear, costumes, etc), heists, kissing, Bruce Springsteen, ragtag bunches of ____, trains, revolutionaries, progressive religion, impromptu music sessions, globe-hopping, party guests with secret agendas, pocket pistols.

I don't like: systematic oppression and oppressiveness, non-consensual sex, sad things, traumatic things, babies and small children, ennui, extended dystopias. Those things exist and are a bummer but I think about them a lot in my real life and I don't like them in my Yuletide.

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Good weekend & 2012 holiday

2011-11-14T14:47:51Z

Man, that was a heavy-drinking Saturday (long story short: friend's plush wedding, endless free champagne. THE END. FOREVER). I still feel quite wobbly and Sunday until about 2:30pm was a serious challenge. BUT! Several good things also happened this weekend.

1. My new gym is three minutes from my office. My new gym has free towels. My new gym has a sauna. On Friday I realised that even when I don't have my gym clothes with me, these could be COMBINED for a nice end-of-week sauna and shower. SUCCESS.

2. Those of you who have been closely following my Twitter (...) will know that two weeks ago American Express lost a £4k payment I sent it to pay for plane tickets to visit hoshuteki's mother in Wellington next year. Good news! On Saturday AM it turned up! I suspect this is only because I made a stink about it on social media, but what works works. When I have completed the complaint letter I am drafting I will post it here because man oh man, was that a trial.

2b. Ewan and I now have tickets to New Zealand with (!!) a three-day stopover in Honolulu! These are both exciting! I am relying on family to plan New Zealand but am also looking forward to chilling on the beach and exploring Hawaii, even if we will be completely jet-lagged for most of it. I am only doing a full week in New Zealand so I still have a bit of 2012 holiday time left, which is a bit sad, but I think New Zealand will still be there in a few years when it is time to go back again.

We also have a 9.5hr layover at LAX (aka ~7hrs accounting for disembarking and checking in on time), which would actually be ideal for sleeping if possible. However, it's 7am to 4:30pm local time. I wonder if it would be possible to get a hotel very close to the airport to sleep, or if that would be more trouble than it's worth.

Anyway. New Zealand! Hawaii! Holiday! Sauna! The only annoying thing is I think I'm coming down with a cold. Again.

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Alternatives to Google Reader

2011-11-08T10:19:52Z

I don't do a lot of complicated things with my Google Reader; I have 20 or so feeds I read and would like to be able to group them into sub-feeds and be able to save some posts for later. I don't use social media or share my reading.

I want to better organise my feeds but I'd also like to get off the Google monster platform as much as possible, and it will be easier to organise my reading list on in a new environment than get it how I like it in Google Reader and try to figure out how to replicate it.

What's the best alternative feed reader for that?

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101 Books: 9-17

2011-11-07T21:32:30Z

I have read more books as part of my 101 books in 1001 days project!

( 9. Girls of Riyadh, Rajaa Alsanea )
( 10. Serve the People, Jen Lin-Liu )
( 11. Furious Love, Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger )
( 12. How to be a Woman, Caitlin Moran )
( 13. The Perfect Rake, Anne Gracie )
( 14. Avalon High, Meg Cabot )
( 15. Economyths, David Orrell )
( 16. Watching the English, Kate Fox )
( 17. Hillel: If Not Now, When?, Joseph Telushkin )

Books I started and didn't finish:

( 00. The Grand Sophy, Georgette Heyer )

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Life in the UK

2011-11-04T14:25:38Z

I am cramming for the Life in the UK test which I have to take tomorrow (blech, but then I will get to celebrate with fireworks! hooray!). The questions are amusing me , when I'm not getting cross at them for being completely nonsensical.

Around 40% are are statistics and dates to memorise ("In what year did women win the right to vote at the same age as men? (a) 1918 (b) 1921 (b) 1928 (c) 1945"). 30% are fairly straightforward and easy ("When is Remembrance Day? (a) February 14 (b) April 1 (c) November 11 (d) December 25"). 10% are delightful and loopy ("True or false: it is traditional for the Queen to lead a costume parade every year on her birthday"), and 10% are just plain factually inaccurate. The study guide I'm using has a sidebar on nearly every other page reading something like, "Romania actually joined the EU in 2007. However, for the purposes of the test you have to pretend it was 2006 like the study guide says."

There are also a handful of propaganda-that-are-also-factually-inaccurate:

View Poll: #8476

(the answer is clearly BOTH!!!)

However, my all-time favourite question is

View Poll: #8477

Anyway, if I flunk I'll be extremely embarrassed, and also have to pay another £50 to take it again. So I hope I don't do that.

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hello I am back

2011-10-28T12:43:04Z

Oh well, rydra_wong has reported that apparently deleting one's journal doesn't help anyway. MY 24-HOUR EXILE IS OVER, ALL IS WELL (FOR ME).

In more exciting (for me) news: I'm in the paper! I'm in the paper! Some day I will stop being amused at the "nothing is relevant unless it is directly applicable to Israel and/or the Orthodox community" editorial line of the Jewish Chronicle. But today is not that day.

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LJ security bug

2011-10-27T11:54:26Z

Apparently there's a pretty spectacular LJ privacy bug that is allowing random users to log into other random users' accounts, including editing and deleting entries, seeing private entries, changing passwords, etc.

At 2pm London time today I'll be temporarily deleting my LJ until this is fixed, for security and privacy reasons. I'm kerrypolka on Dreamwidth with the exact same posts, so we can add each other there - let me know if you need a DW invite code, as I have a few!

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tremedously well played

2011-10-27T08:52:28Z

Holy crap, Giles Fraser has just resigned over discussions about forcing the Occupy London protests to move from St Paul's.

And he announced it on Twitter.

I have very strong heart-feelings right now.

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also, check out the swish icon

2011-10-19T11:57:50Z

So last night I and several other Jewish progressive friends rocked up to Occupy London at St Paul's. We possessed a Pop-Up Sukkah and debated for a bit whether we should put it up before or after the general assembly at 7pm; we decided to put it up before and make kiddush in it afterwards, on the understanding that the general assembly would take about an hour.

It didn't (it was still going when I left to make the last City Thameslink train to Nunhead at 9pm), but it was a good evening anyway.

After announcements we broke into groups of 10-15 and were charged with discussing "what Occupy London should do in the next week". I really enjoy most aspects of earnest protest group discussion. I especially love the hand signals. I found myself disagreeing extremely vehemently with a "fuck the police" 1960s-style radical and, in all seriousness and with no trace of irony, crossing my arms in an X in front of my chest and shaking my head firmly. And even when people verbally disagreed, a lot, they did so very respectfully. That is hard.

The group fairly quickly settled on a male-presenting person to lead/facilitate and a woman to take minutes. As there were only 15 of us with a 60/40-ish female-presenting/male-presenting split, this wasn't the worst thing in the world, especially as the male-presenting person turned out not to identify as male. But I was bothered that when I said "Hey, I just wanted to make sure we're aware of this dynamic, that we have a man leading and a woman taking notes?", someone (male-presenting) rolled their eyes and crossed their arms, someone else (female-presenting) said "Hey, we're all just people" and the minute-taker said "It's fine. Anyway, I'm not offended. It's fine." GUYS, BEING IN A PROGRESSIVE SPACE DOES NOT MAKE US MAGICALLY IMMUNE TO OPPRESSION, INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL. I can probably work on presenting issues like that in a way that is less likely to make people defensive, but I still mostly feel annoyed and frustrated.

But generally I was extremely impressed with the attitudes of the facilitators and participants, and have been a bit tempted to pitch up (I do work just around the corner...and there are showers in my office...if only it weren't so cold). There is Simchat Torah at my synagogue tonight, then I am helping lead a slightly radical-er service at the campsite tomorrow. Sometimes the difference in diaspora festival observance works out really well.*

*When reliable lunar calendars weren't around as much, Jews outside of Israel celebrated two days of each festival to be sure they were getting the right one, as the new moon is hard to gauge on its own. Now that we do have reliable lunar calendars, many Progressive diaspora Jews only do one day, because we do know for sure what day it is. My synagogue is therefore celebrating Simchat Torah tonight and tomorrow, while enough London Jews do an 'extra' days of festivals that Thursday night/Friday day is a totally valid time to have a public service as well.

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I said this on Facebook but I think it's worth repeating

2011-10-18T22:32:09Z

Direct democracy is HARD.

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