Previously: The Bad Hat.
Esther C. Werdiger has a weekly podcast and a rich internet life, but also a job in Jerusalem.
Monday, January 23, 2012
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Previously: The Bad Hat.
Esther C. Werdiger has a weekly podcast and a rich internet life, but also a job in Jerusalem.
MITFORD SISTERS ONGOING FIXATION YES!!!
(....sorry to always be weirdly commenting about this.)
@Chiara Atik@twitter Why apologise? The Mitford sisters are great! (Well, apart from Diana and Unity, because of the Fascism, and Debo, because she came across incredibly badly in her autobiography, but still.)
Esther, if you liked that picture, have I got a tumblr for you.
http://hotguysreadingbooks.tumblr.com/
'Mitford Sisters'; Re: Ongoing Fixation.
Relevant to my interests.
Hugs for everyone that turns into a sad quasi-hibernating existentialist from after the holidays to the beginning of May!
/types from bed
@Toby Jug I look forward to it every year! Mmmm hibernation.
@Toby Jug That's me. Between November and early April, I go out in public just slightly more often than Punxsutawney Phil. I don't like cold weather, wet weather, or (far worse) combinations of cold and wet weather. I do tend to enjoy myself the few times I do emerge from my house, but I think that's just because I'm not used to seeing people in social situations during these months.
@Toby Jug: "And then I got so sad??? For what I don't know." -My life in winter, in 11 words or less.
@Bittersweet That's it! Everyone move to a warm place.
@theharpoon mmm, as someone who lives in a warn place: it's still winter. even when the sun is out, my soul can tell it's January.
@candybeans Not for me!!! WOOOOOOO
aw Esther, I've got winter blahs too *hugs*
spring is coming! at least we don't live in westeros where there's years and years of winter :) although we don't get dragons.
Esther & all! I am seconding/thirding/infinitying the winter blues!
Working from bed sounds amazing. Although whenever I "WFH" I really am usually just WFB anyway. Or more accurately, IBNWPWFNL (In Bed, Not Working, Probably Watching Friday Night Lights)
@redheadedandcrazy It got up to 62 degrees in Pittsburgh today. Pretty sure it's the work of dragons, trying to trick us into playing outside, where they will eat us. Too smart for you, dragons! Back to bed forever.
@redheadedandcrazy "He told me the moon was an egg, Khaleesi," the Lysene girl said. "Once there were two moons in the sky, but one wandered too close to the sun and cracked from the heat. A thousand dragons poured forth, and drank the fire of the sun. That is why dragons breathe flame. One day the other moon will kiss the sun too, and then it will crack and the dragons will return."
@tortietabbie something something 'wake the dragon'
@redheadedandcrazy At least you can hug your dragon and then be warm. I am doing a similar thing with my doggy.
P.S. I am also still sick and I HATE IT. If I have to take medecine at all it is a big deal. Plus every time I go in the elevator my ears plug up!!
@emilylouise I never use this account and I just reset my password to say that I am sick in bed right now and just watched the first 13 episodes of friday night lights in the last 20 hours. sooooo good, also i've spent more time watching friday night lights than not. i never want to be healthy again.
@bnna CLEAR EYES, FULL HEARTS, CAN'T LOSE
@redheadedandcrazy I feel this. Winter blahs + going through a break up = lots and lots of time in bed.
@redheadedandcrazy Such my life. My Netflix goes back and forth between Friday Night Lights and How I Met Your Mother depending on whether or not I need to get something done while watching...
Oh boy, and there is quite an abundance of important Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez information.
I'm still pretty sad he shaved his beard off, though.
@mouthalmighty completely uncalled for. just because he's rolling on alone, without guidance of a rebbe to call his own, doesn't mean he needs to sacrifice the best damn beard on a religious man i've ever seen.
Yes, the first one. BLAH. Is it May yet?
There are people out there that use commas in Google searches??! Now I feel like a lazy, run-on sentence search term creating slob. Wamp wamp.
@kimchi: quoted query, booleans, constraint to domain, so many operators!
@kimchi Oh, you mean like my latest search, "canary yellow diamond ring nicole richie engagement photo" ?
@Too Much Internet *head explodes* My last Google search was "jalapenos irvine lard" so this is an entirely different league we're talking about here.
@kimchi: "jalapenos AROUND(4) Irvine -lard site:yelp.com" will search google for pages that have 'jalapenos' 4 words or closer to 'irvine' but discard any pages also mentioning 'lard' and search only yelp.com for results BOOYASHAKA
http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=136861
@Too Much Internet Dang (and thanks!). Soon I can be yelling BOOYAH after mastering Google queries!
@Too Much Internet Ok, yeah, fine. But why do those fucking fucks at Google insist on adding all their "intelligent search" bullshit to my + searches. There's no way to override it, no matter how many ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++s I add.
And I think you mean "boyle heights"
@Bus Driver Stu Benedict: I thought you could disable G+ search enhancements?
Or do you mean the 'force add + sign' operator?
ALSO I do not believe commas are used by Google in any meaningful way
@Too Much Internet i mean the plus sign, as in "i didn't make any spelling mistakes and there are no grammatical ambiguities you fucking morons jesus christ just lest me search for what i typed ok"
Bahhhhhh, winter blues. I'm a grad student, which means I'm required to be somewhere about twenty hours a week, and the rest of the time I hide under the covers in my freezing apartment, eating potato chips, reading blogs, listening to sad songs, and being a pillow for my cat, in the guise of "doing research". It is a bleak existence.
@Marika Pea@twitter Oh hello, I see you've been watching me through some kind of secret spy cameras! Except I'm usually cuddled in blankets on the couch, eating snacks, snuggling my stuffed animals, etc., while "writing my thesis." And bitching.
@The Lady of Shalott Bonus! When you work from home, this is post-school life, too. Oh, dear.
ETA: I need some potato chips.
@The Lady of Shalott I AM DOING THIS NOW. Except without the stuffed animals, because the only stuffed animal on the premises (a monkey named Peter Gabriel) is the personal bitch of my real animal (a cat who should have been named for one of the bitch-having prisoners on Oz).
Also without the chips, because I have substituted sushi, which was delivered to me, and did not involve me going to the store. "Writing my thesis" is *awesome*...
@The Lady of Shalott We should probably start a support group. Sad Undermotivated Grad Students' Canadian Winter Survival Squad. We'll have giant sleepovers in a blanket fort filled with laptops and cookies.
@Ophelia: Yep. Substitute caramel popcorn for chips, and that's my day-to-day as a telecommuter...
@Marika Pea@twitter I would like to join this group. I have a big bag of M&Ms my mom sent me, can I bring them to the fort party?
@Marika Pea@twitter omg can we make it North American winter? I am in the Pacific NW and it is so dark and crappy :(
@Marika Pea@twitter Can I come too? Not Canadian, but meet all the other requirements. And these days, I think I have to be somewhere six hours a week, at the most. Should be the most amazingly productive period of my life - all this time to revel in my dissertation! - so I get to feel guilty about that, too.
@Bittersweet Substitute Newman's peanut butter oreo-type cookies, and...
yes can I get in on this? I have a big bag of chocolate almonds to contribute although its content is being depleted by the handful
@The Lady of Shalott @The Lady of Shalott M&Ms are ALWAYS welcome in the fort. Americans, chocolate almonds, cookies, and redheadedandcrazies too. Guilt- and depression-fueled eating and procrastinating will be the order of the day. Basically if you have nutritionally vacant foodstuffs, an abundance of supposedly self-regulated time, and a horrifying winter experience, you are qualified.
@Marika Pea@twitter Basically my life now. Add excessive 30 Rock watching to the mix though.
i need some sleep. i read that as "glue the second one to someone else" and i was like NO WONDER they are uncomfortable.
I love the picture with the head peeping out from under the blanket and the food, kleenex, and computer on the bed. Sometimes in the winter I just wanna make a fort outta my sheets and crawl in it like a lil bear in a cave and go to sleep til April.
Best Mitford sister, reporting for duty.
@Decca
I THINK OF THAT EVERY TIME I SEE YOU ON A THREAD.
@Decca How are you even going to pick a favorite I can't even.
@leastimportantperson
The Hon. Pamela Mitford. Married and divorced the millionaire scientist Derek Jackson. John Betjeman, who for a time was in love with her, referred to her as the "Rural Mitford". After her divorce from Jackson, she spent the remainder of her life as the companion of Giuditta Tommasi (died 1993), an Italian horsewoman.
@Esther C. Werdiger And she had an aga to match the colour of her eyes (sky blue).
Also, I just looked up Derek Jackson's Wikipedia and the opening sentence is: "Derek Jackson was one of the outstanding atomic physicists of his generation, but there was very little in his life that could be called conventional." Ha!
@Decca
Anything to do with that family is an absolute quote machine.
@leastimportantperson I have a soft spot for Deborah. Not sure why.
@Esther C. Werdiger It has killed me that your drawing is from an actual photo of the Mitfords.
@combledore Me too! <3 Debo. Though I am probably more of a Nancy when it comes down to it.
@Esther C. Werdiger I am astonished and saddened that I had never heard of this amazing family/phenomenon. And now I have some googling to do from my winter bed-fort. Thanks!
@combledore ME TOO! Deborah is my favorite, and I feel like the OTHER sisters never thought she was talented or brilliant, but if you read their complete letters ("Letters Between Sisters," 2008) her letters are TOTALLY the best.
@Chiara Atik@twitter I suppose Debo does beat her other sisters in longevity...
@Decca alsoooooo her diary descriptions of JFK's inauguration and funeral are really, really fascinating.
@Decca Decca is so the best one. And no, why all this Debo love? I just read her autobiography and found her so infuriating ("oh, it's fine that Diana's a HUGE FASCIST, because she's so nice. Wasn't the world so much better when we could go fox hunting and there wasn't all this health and safety nonsense?").
@Verity Does the fact that Debo is a huge Elvis Presley fan change any of your feelings about her?
@Decca Very slightly. (I feel like such a bad person for disliking her, but her autobiography just completely rubbed me up the wrong way. At least she said using the internet was beyond her, so I don't have to worry that she will see me criticising her.)
Sabra! I have the clip of the dance she and that other guy did to the Eurythmics saved on my computer!
@SunnChips: My friend and I went to see the tour that season and took pictures with most of the dancers. Pasha put his hand on my shoulder and I jizzed in my pants.
@SunnChips SABRA!!!!!!! I love her so much. I didn't even finish the comic until I had watched multiple videos form that season. Is she doing anything?
@SunnChips That was THE BEST season of SYTYCD, even with all of Dom's weird macking on Cat. Sara and Lacey and Anya!!! So many amazing dance numbers (Sabra/Dominic to Ne-Yo, Anya/Danny to Avril Lavigne, Sara/Jesus to the Triplettes of Belleville, Sara/Pascha to Rockafella Skank, and the aforementioned Sabra/Neil to the Eurythmics). LOVE!!!
@ietapi Oh man, I don't think I could even handle being in the same building as Pasha. That man is seriously fine
@hearththr I took a dance class from Pasha maybe a year after he was on SYTYCD? He is delicious, and also a genuinely nice person. Fortunately the class was crowded, so I was able to stifle my urge to squee. My friends and I shamelessly took photos with him at the end, though.
"I googled this one day when I was lost. Instead of directions." = made me lose my shit. I do this! How is it less funny when I do this?
And my last google search was "Israel Lodge #33 Fraternal Order Kesher Shel Basel." You don't even want to know.
related: "help me california"
My last mobile search: "do turtles have butts." The answer is yes, and they can breathe through them.
what
@Bus Driver Stu Benedict So says the Straight Dope. I was as stunned as you.
@combledore Kind of an amazing band name.
SOOO identify with the period bad sense of direction search. My personal low was "early pregnancy wrinkled clothes." I was not pregnant. But I WAS terrified and searching for signs, any signs.
@klibberfish: ... wait. Wrinkled clothes? Early pregnancy? Is there an intersection of these things?
@Too Much Internet No, decidedly not.
@Too Much Internet I think I had just exhausted all the real possibilities ("early pregnancy cramps," "early pregnancy bumps on nipples," "general malaise am i pregnant") and noticed my clothing was getting especially wrinkly and...didn't have enough to do that day? I don't know. My period came right on schedule. All was well.
@klibberfish Oh man, seemingly every month I panic and convince myself that EVERYTHING is a sign of early pregnancy! "Eyeball hurts: early pregnancy?" "Supermarket smells funny: early pregnancy?" "Box of file folders fell on head: early pregnancy?"
@klibberfish Reminds me of this post by the Bloggess: http://thestir.cafemom.com/pregnancy/127960/lesson_25_are_you_pregnant
My dream job is one that doesn't require me to leave my bed from November to May. I love this country (Canada), but I also really hate this country.
@likethestore I feel you, currently out of the country but living in Canada turned me into a recluse unibomber style.
@likethestore You may want to look into our blanket fort pseudoworkspace(see above). It should probably be mandated for all SAD-inclined Canadians and similar.
See, no one ever believes me when I say the coldest I've ever felt has been living in a desert-like environment. It's like nobody here has ever heard of insulation or weatherstripping, and when the rains come, the humidity sucks all the heat out of your body.
Pro-tip: you won't catch a cold if you never leave the house.
@Bus Driver Stu Benedict I believe you. I'm from one of the cold bits in Canada and I think the coldest I've ever felt was being in a poorly insulated house in India for the winter. No heat, no insulation, damp air. Brrr....
@Bus Driver Stu Benedict I am never colder than when I am in Florida because everywhere you go has the a/c cranked to like, 50. Which also sucks all the moisture out of the air. Whenever we visit our family in Florida, I am the only person (under 80) wearing leggings and a sweater in the entire state.
@Bus Driver Stu Benedict yes. THIS is why my house in southern CA, near the ocean (yes, i can hear the tiny violins) is such a cold, cold place. The dampness taking away every last bit of warmth, and the lack of any insulation making it colder in my house than it is outside until about 4 in the afternoon. Also, sitting in front of my computer unmoving for about 6 hours at a go can't help.
@candybeans Yo, what up! *awkwardly pushes middle and ring fingers together to make the Westside sign* Coastal fog effect crew in the house yall! I got like a half inch gap at the bottom of my back window from earthquakes or w/e, and I can see daylight under my front door.
I'm not sure if I can give it up though - I get cranky and evasive when people want me to go do stuff in Eagle Rock or some other inland hellhole in the summertime.
@Bus Driver Stu Benedict ugh, right??? I'd have to turn the *air conditioning* in my car on to survive a trip to Eagle Rock in July! might as well be Arizona. our place is practically half windows, so that probably isn't helping us keep the warmth in. Also, wind whips through the chimney. that's pretty cute. (< false)
@candybeans Oh, a chimney. Well aren't we fancy. Can you smell woodsmoke in your neighborhood anytime it threatens to get into the forties?
Seasonal Affect Disorder is a thing! Also, the acronym is SAD, so it's perfect. I have a really bright light called a happy light which is supposed to mimic the sun and make you happier I guess. I don't really know if it works cause I'm too lazy to turn it on because of SAD. It's a vicious cycle.
@yourpretendfriend I feel as though the lights are thrown out as a SAD cure-all, and while I get the appeal, I'm not sure if it would work for me. While I certainly don't like the dark, what bothers me more is the cold and - especially - the WIND. I'm saving up for one of the light-therapy setups, but I wonder if it will make me feel worse, because even while I'm sitting there with my light, (a) I will probs be freezing, and (b) I'll know there's a whole windy, gross world outside.
Apologies for using this space as my personal journal, but I'm wondering if you - or any other 'pinners - have any suggestions? Help a girl out, please!
@Kitten Mittens Not many suggestions, just some sympathy on the wind thing. I actually get angry at the wind - why is it all up in my face all the time? The wind is an asshole.
BUT - maybe the wind thing is a symptom of the SAD, and the light will help fix the underlying problem so you can deal with the wind better? It's been a pretty sunny winter here so far, and while the wind is still annoying, I don't want to stab it just for blowing. Just a (highly unscientific) theory.
@Kitten Mittens yeah I'm kinda with you on this one. Can a light really compare to the joy of sitting on a beach in a bikini with a beer in hand? for me, the answer is no.
this comment contains no useful anything.
@yourpretendfriend I don't know where to put this, but I've tried telling everyone I know IRL & am met with skepticism. REVERSE Seasonal Affective Disorder! I'm pretty sure I have it? I get super depressed in Spring & Summer and it doesn't lift until the weather gets cooler. I think I googled it once, and it's actually real.
the-end.
@fabel Me too! Or, I felt like this until about two years ago and now I think it switched and I'm pining away for summer. But I would always feel much happier on rainy days! I think it maybe had something to do with feeling less pressure to have to show everyone that I was happy during sunny weather when you're supposed to be happy? I noticed it was much stronger when I was studying abroad/living away from where I grew up, and now that I'm back I am more "regular" and enjoy sun again. I don't know.
I was once digging through the Sylvia Plath archives during a visit to Smith College and found a handwritten something or other, I think from when she was a child? with the EXACT SAME SENTIMENT on it. Which made me feel close to her. Which then terrified me.
@klibberfish That is kind of frightening! But good to know I'm not the only one who experiences this. And I feel you on the rainy days bit-- glorious spring/summer days always make me feel like I should be DOING something, like frolicking around in a field, whereas bad/cold/precipitat-y days don't come with the same pressure.
@yourpretendfriend Logged in to agree. The comic above screams SAD. I'd know, I was finally diagnosed this year after feeling like shit every single winter since before I graduated college. I always boiled it down to "eh, weather" to "eh, boys" to "eh, period hormones" but the moment I started having suicidal ideation, I knew it was time to get some help. I get about 15 minutes of sunlight a day normally (yay cube lyfe).
I've been using a light box (NatureBright Sun Touch, only $75 on Amazon!) for 30 minutes, every morning, over the last two weeks. Although it's still shitty outside, it feels like springtime is here early. The warmth I'm feeling is coming from inside me, I swear to god. I've also been taking about 3000mg of vitamin D-3 every day, though I won't see the effects of those right away.
Anyway, you should never have to feel awful to the point of not showering or getting out of bed in the morning. For real.
@Bebe Why is it all up in my face all the time...this exactly. I hate wind.
@Kitten Mittens My doctor was the one who recommended the light because he actually uses one as well and he said it's pretty much the only thing you can do. I think that it sort of tricks your brain into thinking it's not winter and then it produces more serotonin or something so you might not feel like the world is so terrible outside. But I just sort of made that up so don't quote me on that. I mean, it can't hurt right? But they are pretty expensive.
@fabel I've never heard of that, but maybe you are just slightly depressed or just angsty about summer?
I just finished reading The Sisters (http://www.amazon.com/Sisters-Saga-Mitford-Family/dp/0393324141) it's good and really captures how contradictory they were. I mean, they were SO talented and charming and interesting, but also really mean (mostly to each other) and two of them were Nazis (or, at least, Nazi sympathizers) and another a Communist. Anyway, I recommend it.
"I googled this instead of directions" - HA! I would totally do that.
Selections from my most recent iPhone Google searches:
"every person dance soon"
"tlc lisa lopez" (WEIRD SIMILAR BRAINWAVE)
"where are extension cords at target"
"santorum surge" (...)
@sarabara "every person dance soon" haaaaa!
@Decca Um, my recent searches include "Japan squid porn" (I had to show friends! They didn't believe it!) and "maitresse: meaning?"
@sarabara help me california?
Recent (drunken) iPhone Google search: John Cusack how tall? Whaaaattt?! Spoiler alert: he is pretty tall.
So??? What did you come up with vis-a-vis poor sense of direction and periods? This is important information and I'm not about to type anything related to the vaginal area into a search on my work computer.
@kayjay At this point I'm convinced either no one in IT is monitoring my web history or they are just too embarrassed to confront me about the yeast infection home remedies, UTI questions, early pregnancy symptoms and IUD pain anecdotes I've been googling regularly since I started here.
@klibberfish my 2 years with an iud were incredibly painful. it finally got to the point i had it removed. the CRAMPS, man.
@klibberfish Same! Yesterday at work when my boss came up behind me to talk about something, I didn't really even try to hide the "multivitamin side effects constipation" search on my screen. I have no pride post-Christmas! BLAH!
I was worried that they sent the USPS police after you for burgling line places.
A gaggle of confused, handsome men is much, much better.
My last phone Google search was "air bud" because we were watching the playoffs and I wanted to let everyone know in which sequel Air Bud's puppies go to space.
If anyone was curious, it's called Space Buddies, and this is a brief summary: "The Buddies tag along for a field trip to the space museum and accidentally crawl aboard a rocket ship."
Now my most recent Google search is "mitford sisters".
You know, I do the thing with getting an extra number too. I started doing it because I was the recipient of an extra number once in the Kupat Holim pharmacy. I went at time when the waiting room was packed, mostly with ladies and gentleman mostly over the age of 75. I thought I would have to wait an hour, but this young women sidled up to me and surreptitiously presented me with a better number. I was so grateful, so I started doing it too. I usually give the number to someone who looks like they don't have all day to wait in line, which I guess means I give it to young people. Is that terrible? Is it better than giving it to attractive people? Anyway, I still do it. I'm not very good at butting in line, so I figure this is my way of making up for all those times someone physically pushed me out of the way at the shuk.