liv: Table laid with teapot, scones and accoutrements (yum)
Last week I wasn't on DW much, cos I was busy having soul-nourishing conversations with some of my favourite people, in person.

social doings )

I must admit I am getting a little fed up with green sorts being smug about the volcano blocking air travel. Yes, yes, you are very virtuous in foregoing flying, good for you. But really, people who are trapped in the wrong country, spending more than they can afford and being powerless to deal with urgent problems at home or missing important family occasions don't deserve your schadenfreude. I'm sure I'm not the only one who knows several people directly affected by this. And even if aeroplanes are evil, at least they don't interfere with my breathing.

Two much nicer creative responses to the volcano:
[livejournal.com profile] papersky wrote poetry (the comments have a bonus awesome ash-cloud dragon animation).
[livejournal.com profile] redaloud wrote prose.

Warm house

Jan. 19th, 2010 07:59 pm
liv: Table laid with teapot, scones and accoutrements (yum)
I foolishly decided to have my housewarming just about the first possible weekend after moving in (leaving aside the Christmas period, which is useless for parties). The idea was that it would encourage me to be organized about getting the house sorted out, which only worked partly; I got more done than I would have without the deadline, but not everything, and it was more stressful. But the good thing was that lots of lovely people were helpful and supportive, and the party itself was everything I hoped for.

I have the best friends )


Oh, and I have left over: a long black scarf which I think is [livejournal.com profile] doseybat's, and a washing bag that I think belongs to [personal profile] jack, and a small black umbrella with unidentified owner. If you want me to post stuff back to you, let me know an address and I'll do so.

Surprisingly enough, I don't yet have enough bookcases or storage systems generally. And there are still a few minor DIY jobs that I need to tackle, like putting up coat hooks and towel rails and such. But generally I have a working home that makes me feel relaxed and content when I walk in through the door after a day at work. Also, internet is supposed to be arriving on Monday; I'm a little peeved that TalkTalk's assurance of four working days turned into 21 after I'd already committed to them (while I could have cancelled the contract, at that point it would have taken even longer to find an alternative and get get things set up from scratch), but if it does get switched on seamlessly after only a month of dongle misery I shall be reasonably content.
liv: Table laid with teapot, scones and accoutrements (yum)
Happy New Year, peeps. I have had a month with a lot of intense activity and very little internet access. Now I'm at my parents so I'll make a start on catching up.

late, even for white rabbits )

We came back to Cambridge for NYE which we spent at a very convivial party at Relativity. Then [personal profile] jack drove me to the parents' for a belated celebration of my grandmother's 90th. This was only partly successful because although we did get all the sibs together in one place, there was only about a three hour overlap. Now I'm having a nice relaxing weekend hanging out, chatting to parents and catching up a bit on the internet.
liv: Table laid with teapot, scones and accoutrements (yum)
I had a really great weekend: Friday night dinner with AF and parents, who asked me to stay over so that they could give me a lift to the synagogue in South Manchester in the morning, where I enjoyed a moving service and exciting discussion group. Then I took the train to London and spent the evening at [livejournal.com profile] doseybat's birthday party, staying over with [personal profile] khalinche and [livejournal.com profile] ewtikins. And I had a lovely relaxed day on Sunday just hanging out with people I really like.

namechecking and slightly anxious ramblings )

I think the conclusion is that efficiency is not the answer when it comes to socializing. I need to make a whole chunk of several hours to see people individually, and since I live in the right country this should even be practically achievable. And one of these days I will learn how adults do social skills *sigh*
liv: Table laid with teapot, scones and accoutrements (yum)
Friday was really horrible, running round town trying to do an errand which I thought would be simple but ended up being a long drawn-out, fruitless and very damp quest for an object which essentially isn't for sale (a replacement power adapter for my Eee netbook). So I got home and I was cold and tired and grumpy, and I decided I couldn't face going back out into the rain to go to shul. So I had a really relaxed evening at home, eating pasta with tasty mushroom sauce, and writing some backlogged posts, and drinking tea and getting myself into a more shabbat-like mood.

then came the fun bit )

But yes, that was very well worth the slightly excessive trip to London. And now I know that I can do London over a weekend, if there's a good enough motivation, I hope to get back into seeing some of my circle there more regularly.
liv: Table laid with teapot, scones and accoutrements (yum)
I feel amazingly lucky that I could just turn up here and slot into [personal profile] jack's social life. Thank you, Cambridge geeks, for being so welcoming to an outsider.

fun week )

The only downside to being back in Cambridge and in reach of lots of fun conversations and culture is that I can't actually breathe here. But hey, I'm actually doing better than normal so it's well worth it.
liv: Table laid with teapot, scones and accoutrements (yum)
That was a much more partyish weekend than I usually manage, and besides, I managed to see all three of my siblings (though more consecutively than together). Yay for being unemployed and in the same country as lots of cool people!

party girl )

I took the first step on the way to looking grown-up and respectable today, when I acquired new glasses. My first new ones in 10 years, and I decided to be radical and go for a change of style rather than trying to find the closest match to what I'm used to. The next step probably ought to be a haircut, but I really hate doing that. We'll see.
liv: cartoon of me with long plait, teapot and purple outfit (mini-me)
I haven't updated for a couple of weeks, because I have barely had time to breathe during that time. It involved two international moves and catching up with months worth of family time and quite a lot of headless chicken imitations!

Anyway, the culmination of all this was that I arrived in New York yesterday evening. I am here until the end of July, mostly studying at Drisha but I'm likely to be free to meet up evenings or weekends if anyone feels like it. Next weekend I am going to Montreal to see [livejournal.com profile] rysmiel. And the first week in August (after the course finishes) I might go on a long diversion to California, but that has to be finalized. Anyway if you are somewhere within a reasonable day trip of New York, let me know if you want to make plans.

why I've not been online much recently )

So, if you were in New York for a month with fairly limited free time, what would be your priority?
liv: Table laid with teapot, scones and accoutrements (yum)
Went out for dinner with the Progressive folk on Wednesday night, and celebrated one of our students graduating on Thursday.

diary )
liv: cup of tea with text from HHGttG (teeeeea)
Some of my cells turned out to be dead yesterday, so I couldn't do the experiment I wanted to do. Also, it was very, very sunny, so I called SA and invited her to go and play in the sun. So we did, we went for a longish walk round the water by Djurgården, which is one of the most gorgeous urban parks here. And even after several hours walking, we wanted to keep chatting so we went out for a Chinese meal at a little restaurant close by SA's place, Conton. One of those veggie fake meat places; they did a reasonably convincing hoisin duck.

I got home later than I'd quite intended, and found that [personal profile] jack had made me this guide to what's actually going on inside a computer when you program it. It started with me asking a small question about something I was working on for Dreamwidth, and then I didn't have some of the principles needed to understand the answer, and the explanation grew into this huge essay with examples. That's the sort of thing I find ultimately romantic, because I get to learn new things, thanks to [personal profile] jack putting serious effort into supporting my interests.
liv: Table laid with teapot, scones and accoutrements (yum)
Thursday was one of those random Swedish holidays, and that made Friday a squeezing day or semi-holiday. To my great delight, [personal profile] jack was able to come and join me for one last episode of the Swedish phase of our relationship. And we've had a truly wonderful few days.

sociable )

So that was an absolutely ideal balance of socializing and tourism with relaxing and enjoying eachother's company. (We had time in between for [personal profile] jack to explain a whole bunch of programming concepts to me, and for me to explain Jewish denominations to him.) It was a bit silly seeing the same crowd of people for three separate social occasions on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening, but hey, they're all people I wanted to see. The only disappointment was that SS was supposed to be present for all three, but didn't make it to any of them. I happened to run into him at the station on the way to meeting [personal profile] jack, but then he disappeared again.
liv: cast iron sign showing etiolated couple drinking tea together (argument)
My Swedish friends continue trying to say goodbye to me at every opportunity. At least this gives me excuses to be sociable, and May to June is the most sociable time of year here anyway; the weather is fine enough and the days are long enough, but it's not the height of summer when everyone goes to the country or away on holiday.

more sociability )

Realistically, I do need to be thinking about the future. I don't have many job prospects open, so it's most likely that I won't have a job lined up by the time this position finishes at the end of June. Possibilities:
  • I'm waiting to hear about the Leicester post-doc, where I failed to meet the actual professor.
  • I have a couple of applications for lecturing jobs sent out on spec (Bradford and Cardiff), but I don't hold out great hopes because the first one I sent in after the deadline, and the second one I stupidly sent the wrong version of the file, and although I corrected it with a chasing email five minutes later, that doesn't make a good impression!)
  • I may theoretically still get something from the good-looking Cambridge guy, but I pretty much need to apply for my own funding and there's a lot of uncertainty

[personal profile] hatam_soferet has been trying to convince me to spend the summer learning at a Yeshiva, probably Drisha. I think this makes a fair amount of sense, because the chances of getting a job that would clash with that are pretty slim, and I might as well start again with job hunting later in the summer. It's slightly expensive (especially in a recession and with no clear job prospects!), but I would love the chance for several weeks of focused Jewish learning soooo much that I think it's worth it.

I need to talk to various people to make that happen, not least parents. I think I'll give formal notice to my boss tomorrow, and therefore aim to finish at midsummer rather than the end of June. That will give me a week or so to move my life back to England, before potentially travelling to NY for the learning. If I do make the trip I'll certainly leave a week or so free after the programme finishes for visiting people in NorAm. Family stuff is a bit complicated at the moment, which is another reason to leave Sweden a little early rather than extending things for a couple of weeks, as I was previously thinking. We'll see. Actually realizing that I only have, at best, six weeks more of employment is pretty scary, but I do still optimistically believe that my life is going to contain nice things and even remunerated nice things.

Goodbyes

May. 10th, 2009 08:08 pm
liv: cup of tea with text from HHGttG (teeeeea)
This week has been marked by lots of people trying to have emotional public ceremonies to say goodbye to me and wish me luck in my future. This is because it's generally assumed that I'm moving back to the UK in the next few weeks, but I keep telling people I don't have anything lined up and nothing is certain. I mean, I probably will move, but I'm not psychologically ready to say goodbye yet.

what I've been up to )

Meanwhile, some great links about the controversy with the new edition of the DSM, the mental health bible for the US healthcare system, and how it deals with sexuality.
  • [livejournal.com profile] juliaserano expresses concern about the paraphilia category.
  • [personal profile] auntysarah gives a snarky summary
  • [livejournal.com profile] siderea has a much more positive take. Be sure to check out the comments where she directly addresses the worries expressed by the trans community, and gives some really good explanation of how the US mental health system works.
  • liv: cup of tea with text from HHGttG (teeeeea)
    So, apart from the job interview craziness, I managed to cram in quite a bit of socializing.

    social diary )
    liv: cartoon of me with long plait, teapot and purple outfit (Default)
    I spent the weekend in Cambridge, partly socializing and partly job hunting. Apologies for not letting people know I was travelling or making arrangements; the weekend ended up so packed that I couldn't have fit anyone else in.

    take that, geography! )

    While I was away, [livejournal.com profile] compilerbitch posted something amazing and profound. You should definitely go and read it. Seriously, if you only follow one link this month, it should be this one.

    If that moves you to care about the issue, read this article about a literal Catch-22 scenario which is preventing trans folk in Oxfordshire from obtaining treatment. Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] oxfordgirl for pointing to that. It's a bit long, but it's very informative, and among other things it provides credible, peer-reviewed citations for the somewhat counterintuitive point that sex reassignment surgery actually works to improve quality of life for a lot of trans people, whereas counselling and psychotherapy just don't.

    Then, if you are a UK citizen or resident, go and sign the petition to get this stupid situation resolved so people can access the medical care they need. I'm not always a huge fan of e-petitions, but this seems to be exactly the sort of scenario where they're most useful. It's a specific, detailed issue of local policy which needs to be changed in order to make people's lives less miserable, and can readily be changed without changing the entire constitutional philosophy of the country or spending unreasonable sums of money. And note the .gov.uk site; this is official, and people with political power actually read it, even if there is a lot of crap there too.
    liv: cartoon of me with long plait, teapot and purple outfit (Default)
    Wow, I almost need a holiday from this week! Lessee.

    diary )

    The other awesome thing in my life is that I'm going to Florence next weekend!!!! This is mainly because [livejournal.com profile] cartesiandaemon is wonderful, but I have to admit he can't actually take personal credit for the fact that Florence exists. I'm almost afraid that I won't make the trip because I'll explode from squee first.
    liv: A woman with a long plait drinks a cup of tea (teapot)
    SA invited me to go shopping with her yesterday, and we had a brilliant time.

    with a bit of a assistance, I can be a girl )

    Made it to shul this morning, and caught one of Eva A's typically impressive sermons, and reminded people that I exist. My plan is to spend tomorrow and Monday finally wrangling this paper into submission format so we can send the thing before my colleague and I leave for vacation.

    Linked

    Jul. 13th, 2008 09:37 am
    liv: cartoon of me with long plait, teapot and purple outfit (Default)
    Two reasons I love Wikipedia at the moment.

    Two reasons I love my friends list at the moment.

    Steampunk jewellery. I don't really buy jewellery, but I sort of want one of those watch mechanism pendants.

    Also, shabbat was lovely. yay friends )
    liv: cartoon of me with long plait, teapot and purple outfit (Default)
    I can't believe it's been a year since [livejournal.com profile] rav_hadassah left Stockholm! Anyway, I really wanted to see her again before she disappears to California to train as a rabbi, so I organized a long weekend in Holland. And it made lots of sense for [livejournal.com profile] cartesiandaemon to join us; since we have geography anyway, we might as well travel to interesting exotic places to see eachother. The combination of romantic weekend, with exploring a really lovely place, with getting to see [livejournal.com profile] rav_hadassah, made for a lot of wonderfulness combined together, and even so, the weekend surpassed my expectations.

    yay! )

    Yay lovely and cultured city! Yay seeing two of my favourite people and introducing them to eachother! Yay wheat beer! Yay snuggles uninterrupted by geography or company! I love it when my plans work to defeat geography. Oh, and [livejournal.com profile] cartesiandaemon's account is much more witty than mine.

    My hero!

    Mar. 17th, 2008 09:26 pm
    liv: cartoon of me with long plait, teapot and purple outfit (Default)
    [livejournal.com profile] cartesiandaemon was amazingly impressive this weekend. Not for doing anything silly like rescuing me from dragons, but because he agreed to come with me to Screwy's birthday party and meet my entire family at once. This in fact went brilliantly, and he even made a good impression on Granny.

    In fact, everything we planned went as well as it possibly could, and it added up to an absolutely perfect weekend. There was loads of the best kind of socializing, and a good but not excessive amount of coupliness. *bounce*

    minimally nauseating, I assure you )

    Now I fall over. But yay for lots and lots of geography-defying fun with lots of cool people. By the way, apologies to the people to whom I failed to make it clear that I had decided to make the trip this weekend instead of going to Eastercon next weekend. I think the decision was right, but I still regret that it meant missing out on another potentially fun thing. And I'm particularly sorry that I don't get to see [livejournal.com profile] lethargic_man, [livejournal.com profile] friend_of_tofu and other Eastercon people.

    Soundbite

    Miscellaneous. Eclectic. Random. Perhaps markedly literate, or at least suffering from the compulsion to read any text that presents itself, including cereal boxes.

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