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st_aurafina- It's koala mating season. Nobody's getting any sleep right now, not just the koalas.
This is what I can hear wandering past the bedroom window at night. There's also screaming possums, but I can't find a recording of that. It's pretty wild out there. Whooping and grunting and screeching, and thundering across the roof. I feel like there should be some kind of punchline here, like "And that's just the humans" but honestly, I'm too underslept to formulate it.
BTW, people seem to think koalas are cute. LIES! LIES LIES LIES! They are cranky, mean, smelly little bastards. This is why you shouldn't get out of your car when you see a cute fuzzy koala by the side of the road. Those little fuckers have great big claws and they will fuck you up.
- I am in mourning for Stanza, the beautiful, free, intuitive iPhone app that let me read ebooks and fic DLed from the Archive. iOS5, the latest software update, killed the app dead. Amazon bought it and shunted it into limbo, presumably to stop it from competing with Kindle. Amazon: still harshing my squee, in new and exciting ways even when I don't shop with them.
I've tried two options: i2reader is a paid app - don't pay for it if you use Calibre, because it's currently not functional with that program. I'm using ShuBook which is free but has an in-app purchase to access higher functions. Shubook is clunky, but it works okay. You need to adjust the font and size individually, which is a big hassle. You can make it talk to Calibre by selecting '+' in the downloads menu, and select 'Add a catalog'. Then it goes looking for your Calibre server, and you can select from that menu as you would in Stanza.
Some links to reviews of ebook apps to replace Stanza:
Dear Author's review of eBooksearch, Megareader and Shubook
A bunch of reviews from the Mac forums, where the merits of various replacements are discussed.
- My brother got married on the weekend. I wore the enormous heels, and I did not fall. I ROCKED those shoes. Then I took them off for the reception. The whole thing was a strange and exhausting experience, during which I was wracked by emotions. When the bride got out of the car, she was crying. This set my mum off, which set every family member off in a strange and confusing emotional domino race. Then I talked with a whole lot of people I haven't seen since I was under ten, which, you know. Awkward. But I strode around blithely introducinglilacsigil as my partner, and nobody batted an eyelid. So, either, people had been carefully prepared by my mother, or they were blissfully drunk, but either way, there were no problems of the homophobic kind.
And this was the cake!
- NaNo is coming. I had an idea, but I've completely failed to realise it into some kind of plot, so I'm doing fanworks this year. FaNo, if you will.lilacsigil did that last year, and it looked like a lot of fun. Next year, serious writing. This year, fun and fannish writing. As long as I hit 50K for the month, I'm calling it a win.
- I have an Anne of Green Gables icon! I'm using it just because.
This is what I can hear wandering past the bedroom window at night. There's also screaming possums, but I can't find a recording of that. It's pretty wild out there. Whooping and grunting and screeching, and thundering across the roof. I feel like there should be some kind of punchline here, like "And that's just the humans" but honestly, I'm too underslept to formulate it.
BTW, people seem to think koalas are cute. LIES! LIES LIES LIES! They are cranky, mean, smelly little bastards. This is why you shouldn't get out of your car when you see a cute fuzzy koala by the side of the road. Those little fuckers have great big claws and they will fuck you up.
- I am in mourning for Stanza, the beautiful, free, intuitive iPhone app that let me read ebooks and fic DLed from the Archive. iOS5, the latest software update, killed the app dead. Amazon bought it and shunted it into limbo, presumably to stop it from competing with Kindle. Amazon: still harshing my squee, in new and exciting ways even when I don't shop with them.
I've tried two options: i2reader is a paid app - don't pay for it if you use Calibre, because it's currently not functional with that program. I'm using ShuBook which is free but has an in-app purchase to access higher functions. Shubook is clunky, but it works okay. You need to adjust the font and size individually, which is a big hassle. You can make it talk to Calibre by selecting '+' in the downloads menu, and select 'Add a catalog'. Then it goes looking for your Calibre server, and you can select from that menu as you would in Stanza.
Some links to reviews of ebook apps to replace Stanza:
Dear Author's review of eBooksearch, Megareader and Shubook
A bunch of reviews from the Mac forums, where the merits of various replacements are discussed.
- My brother got married on the weekend. I wore the enormous heels, and I did not fall. I ROCKED those shoes. Then I took them off for the reception. The whole thing was a strange and exhausting experience, during which I was wracked by emotions. When the bride got out of the car, she was crying. This set my mum off, which set every family member off in a strange and confusing emotional domino race. Then I talked with a whole lot of people I haven't seen since I was under ten, which, you know. Awkward. But I strode around blithely introducing
lilacsigil as my partner, and nobody batted an eyelid. So, either, people had been carefully prepared by my mother, or they were blissfully drunk, but either way, there were no problems of the homophobic kind. And this was the cake!
- NaNo is coming. I had an idea, but I've completely failed to realise it into some kind of plot, so I'm doing fanworks this year. FaNo, if you will.
lilacsigil did that last year, and it looked like a lot of fun. Next year, serious writing. This year, fun and fannish writing. As long as I hit 50K for the month, I'm calling it a win. - I have an Anne of Green Gables icon! I'm using it just because.
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Date: 2011-10-20 11:53 am (UTC)That is an awesome cake :)
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Date: 2011-10-22 11:58 am (UTC)It was an awesome cake! Which my family seemed to enjoy carving up enthusiastically.
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Date: 2011-10-20 11:57 am (UTC)Heh. Raccoons are the same way! People see pictures and go all "N'awwwww! Fuzzy and cute!" when the reality is no such thing.
Thanks for the koala bellowing recording - that's extraordinary. I didn't know your possums were noisy, too. What *fun* nights you're having! Or not. North American opossums make unearthly noises, but not, thank goodness, at mating time.
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Date: 2011-10-22 12:09 pm (UTC)Opossums are super scary! Their ears are so shiny! Ours are at least adorable to look at, until they try to take your hand off.
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Date: 2011-10-22 09:22 pm (UTC)I collected eggs from under an opossum one winter evening when I was a kid. One of my chores was caring for the laying hens and I'd put it off until nearly dark. I didn't bother turning on the henhouse light because I didn't really need it and it would rouse the hens who were already asleep on their perch. So there I am at the nesting boxes, picking up the eggs from each and putting them in my bucket. When I reached into one box there was someone in there. I wasn't paying much attention and I presumed it was a hen, as they sometimes slept on the eggs. So I just nudged her with the back of my hand to get her to stand up and scooped the eggs from beneath her. It was only then that I realized it wasn't feathers I was touching, but coarse hair! Not sure which of us was more startled! Hee! At any rate, she didn't try to bite or scratch or anything - just stood there staring at me when I turned on the light. So I evicted her and that was that. I shudder to think how badly it would have gone if it had been a raccoon!
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Date: 2011-10-23 07:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-20 01:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-23 06:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-20 01:30 pm (UTC)And I now realize that koalas are only adorable to me because I live far, far away from their native continent.
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Date: 2011-10-23 06:54 am (UTC)The cake was awesome - it's chocolate on the inside, I approve of this.
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Date: 2011-10-20 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-23 06:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-20 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-23 06:56 am (UTC)The cake was awesome - it's chocolate on the inside. All barns should be chocolate on the inside.
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Date: 2011-10-20 05:46 pm (UTC)Apple also killed the Kobo store app when they updated. So I think part of it is that Apple doesn't like the competition against iBooks or whatever that's called. They still piss me off far, far less than Amazon though.
I'm glad to hear the wedding went... well that it didn't go that badly. Weddings almost always feel emotionally odd for me too.
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Date: 2011-10-23 07:42 am (UTC)Apple is definitely less evil than Amazon, on a relative scale of evil.
Weddings almost always feel emotionally odd for me too.
Yeah, odd is a good word for it. I had many feelings.
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Date: 2011-10-20 05:54 pm (UTC)And I agree with
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Date: 2011-10-23 07:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-20 06:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-23 07:45 am (UTC)Yay, the cake was adorable, and chocolate on the inside. A good choice.
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Date: 2011-10-20 07:23 pm (UTC)Fano, huh? How does that work then? Do you just try to hit a certain number of words of fanfic in a month? I need to do something to jump-start my writing.
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Date: 2011-10-23 07:46 am (UTC)That's the plan! I will put the fics all in one file and use that to confirm the win. Technically it makes me a NaNo rebel - like memoirs, fanfic isn't officially a NaNo topic. But that won't stop me.
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Date: 2011-10-20 08:45 pm (UTC)Clearly, koalas are not to be fucked with...
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Date: 2011-10-23 07:47 am (UTC)Only by other koalas!
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Date: 2011-10-20 10:52 pm (UTC)FaNo, if you will.
I wish I still had that option - sadly, since 2009 I seem to view NaNo as a time for Srs Bzns Writing. Good luck and have fun!
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Date: 2011-10-23 07:48 am (UTC)OM NOM GONE. It was chocolate on the inside!
since 2009 I seem to view NaNo as a time for Srs Bzns Writing.
Yeah, me too, since 2007. But I'll enjoy relaxing and getting words out for this one, I think. My novel bunny needs more proving time.
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Date: 2011-10-22 05:31 am (UTC)yay for rocking your shoes and the lack of homophobia!
i don't have an anne icon, but i have a scully icon with an anne reference. :)
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Date: 2011-10-23 07:50 am (UTC)For serious. And we're up hill from the pub, so sometime we can hear the hooting of the apes. *sighs*
Dana! Red headed snippet! Them's the kind that put strychnine in the well!
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Date: 2011-10-25 02:51 am (UTC)