Happy Summer Solstice!

Solstice Lily
Originally uploaded by pfly

Yay--summer! For some people at least, that means a little free time. Not us, but congratulations to those of you for whom it does.

Our current entertainments:

We've been borrowing Lost on DVD from the library (yay libraries!) and watching it (usually in bed with headphones). I'm kind of glad neither of us watched it on TV. We're on disc 5 of Season 1, and so far it's magically delicious. Ha! Disguised sci-fi. Take that, mainstream programming.

We finished reading the His Dark Materials trilogy. We loved it, loved it, loved it--except for the end of the very last book. Unfortunately it kind of ruined the memory of the previous nine blissful months of reading the rest of the series to each other. If there's one thing that's worse than a really contrived happy ending, it's a really contrived sad ending. I understand some stories have to end sadly, but this one really seemed forced.

While putting Limelet to sleep, I've been reading a lot of Sheri S. Tepper. Old-school feminist sci-fi stories that grip you from the start and never let you go! She's a bit transparent in her themes in a number of of her works (Beauty, The Fresco), but the stories and characters are really compelling anyway.

Anyway, happy summer.

I've never liked you

I've never liked you skirt detail
Originally uploaded by QueenieVonSugarpants

This skirt cracks me up. If I was up on my sewing, I'd sew something like this. Luckily someone else did it so I don't have to.

But I wouldn't wear it to a workday in my profession...

Librarians

Stumbled across this Flick'r group. I don't know how any librarian could resist joining.

Best Spam Email Subject Ever

"Joy Division sneakers in the works."

Unfortunately, it was not about Joy Division sneakers at all, but rather about the usual medication for you-know-what.

Too bad, as I could use some [miserable] '80s-pop-music-themed footwear.

Infernal Devices (or Their Drivers Anyway)

Well, I feel I wasted much of my short dissertation time today trying to hook our lovely Handycam (courtesy of Auntie Argot) to my lovely computer.

I just want to upload some of the things we've been recording all this time to, say, YouTube. I feel guilty that people who just had babies this week have already uploaded clips. However, it's not going to be for a while, probably.

We did got the USB cable recently and I thought it would be a simple process. Unfortunately, Windows believes that the Handycam is in fact my PCTV, no matter what I've done to change that. It wouldn't be such a bad thing except that the Sony USB streaming tool must have different settings than the PCTV, because the sound is so slow and warpy in the transfer that we all sound like the Devil. (Even the bluebirds sound like some kind of slow, evil birds.)

I've uninstalled (supposedly) all the PCTV stuff and all the Sony stuff and reinstalled only the Sony, in various permutations. However, even though the install wizard says that it sees a Sony Blah Blah Thingummy, once it's all set up, the sound settings on the streaming tool still insist that the sound is from the PCTV USB Whatchamacallit. (Even after I uninstalled that driver.)

So anyway, no video clips yet. (At least none with sound.) Sorry. It doesn't mean we haven't been making baby films like mad!

Why I Haven't Posted Lately

Should be clear from the video message I recently sent to my sister.

Hope everyone is well.