commas and ampersands

It's that time of year again...

The A/C in our apartment is set up kind of strangely. We can't have both the A/C and the heat at the same time.

Well, of course, you silly girl; who would want the air conditioning and the heat on together?

Okay, no one. But what I mean is, because our system is set up in this weird, funky way, we have to get a technician every winter and summer to switch something in our A/C unit from heat to A/C. This is something that our landlord could have permanently dealt with, but she's chosen not to (yet), so we have to call someone in every few months.

In general, this isn't a bad thing. For most of the year, we don't need both the heat and the A/C at the same time. However, there are a few weeks in November when it would come in handy. See, at night, it's getting down to 50F/10C or so, which, while not freezing cold, is kind of chilly. Without being able to run the heat to take a bit of the edge off, it's hard to be motivated to get out of my cozy, warm, 3-blanketed bed into the cold bedroom.

However, we have days, like this weekend is forecast to be, that are still getting up to 90F/32C. The apartment faces west, and all the windows are on the west side, so in the afternoon, the whole place can get a little bit toasty, and it's handy to have the A/C just to take the edge off. We don't need to run either one a whole lot--in general, the apartment is quite comfortable when it's the temperature that it naturally is at this time of year--but there are moments.

In another week or two, we'll call the technician in and have the system switched over to heat so that we're set for the winter. Once it gets chillier, in January and February, we'll want it, and we won't need the A/C for a few more months at that point.

Still, for right now, it's rather inconvenient, and as much as I love snuggling under lots of blankets in a chilly room (because that's quite a wonderful feeling), it's not so fun when I have to get out of bed in the morning.



In slightly related news, I have a 30% off coupon for Old Navy, Gap, and/or Banana Republic. I might have to use that to get a winter coat, since my older dressy one is getting kind of worn and I've needed a new one since at least last year. I may only need a real winter coat for about 3 weeks of the year (when I'm in Calgary at Christmas), but I still need it for those 3 weeks, and if I'm moving back up there after I graduate next December, I'll definitely need one then.

I saw one that I loved at H&M, but it was about $30 more than I wanted to spend. However, Target has one similar to the one at H&M, and it's almost exactly the same price as the one I'm looking at from Old Navy (with the discount). I'll have to look at them both again and see which one I like better.

I also have a "friends" coupon to forward to as many people as would like it, so if you want 30% off through Sunday for either in-store or online (U.S. only, unfortunately; seems like Canada is always being discriminated against in the good-discount department), let me know (along with your email address if I don't have it), and I'll forward it to you.

( Just to get you onto my page )

Well, it's November 1, and I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this year. I don't know that I can commit to it, although I think that next year, I may end up using the momentum of NaNo to get my thesis finished. I am, however, going to unofficially do NaBloPoMo. I'm not going to sign up on the website or anything, but I'm hoping to write an entry every day. An entry of some substance, that is. Something more than a daily update or a meme. I have some links that I've been meaning to share, and I might take this month to go through my blogroll and link to some of the really good blogs that I follow, and a few other things. At the end of the month, I'll see how many words I've blogged. I'm sure it won't be 50,000, but it'll be something relatively substantial, I'm sure.

I'm kind of in love with Improv Everywhere. It's a New York-based performance art group that takes large-scale pranks out into the public, and the whole "improv" concept is rooted in the way the audience responds to the performers' actions. It's kind of like a cross between Punk'd, candid camera, and performance art, and the result is really cool.

The projects themselves are fairly simple concepts, but the execution is somewhat elaborate. They often involve hundreds of people (generally volunteers who follow Improv Everywhere's website) and very detailed timing; some involve fewer people with more rehearsal time; but all of them leave the possibility open for interaction with the public, which is where it becomes performance art, in a way. I'm not a huge performance art fan--I'd rather see theatre, for the most part--but Improv Everywhere does it in a way that's less pretentious and esoteric than certain other forms of performance art. It's like meta-performance art. It knows what it is, and it does it to create moments of community, both for the "agents" who meet while doing the events and for the public who are caught in the middle of the happenings.

For instance, there's the piece where over 200 people froze in Grand Central Station at exactly the same time for the same amount of time (which was one of the first Improv Everywhere pieces I saw, and is still a definite favorite). There was the human mirror, where sets of identical twins boarded the subway, sat across from each other, and mirrored each other's actions. There was the slow-mo Home Depot, where several hundred shoppers all moved through the store in slow motion at the same time. There was the shirtless Abercrombie and Fitch project, the food court musical (which is one of my favorites), and some of them were even arrested during No Pants 2k6 (and, really, no pants 2000 through 2008). And, just because they can, they brought NBC and the Goodyear Blimp to a Little League game.

They've been around since 2001, so I know I'm a little late to the game, just discovering them in the past year or so, but it's art worth sharing.

I'm not going to fall asleep anytime soon, I don't think. I wasn't feeling all that great today, so I crawled out of bed to make it to church, and when I got home, crawled back in and dozed on and off all afternoon until I went to work tonight. ( A little bit TMI, but nothing graphic ) So anyway, all that to say that I slept too much this afternoon, and now I'm going to be awake half the night.

Mariah and I went to see Rachel Getting Married last night. I don't know whether or not it's playing anywhere but New York and L.A. yet (I know that it just opened here and there, but it was supposed to be opening in wider release, so maybe it's starting to), but I really recommend it. Mariah said that some of her friends really didn't like it, but she thought that they were expecting something different.

( Non-spoilery thoughts and reactions )

Anyway, good movie. See it if you get the chance.

And I think I'm going to try and fall asleep... we'll see how easily that happens.

A meme, stolen from samirant, for a little early morning pick-me-up:

Post a list of your top five favorite fics you've written, regardless of fandom or the reason you love them. This isn't about the BEST things you've written, but what you LOVE most. Then tag five other people to do the same.

Well, I've only written in the GG fandom, so they'll all come from there, but here we go, in no particular order:

( Five stories )

By the way, lady_m2835 has a new story up!

The Mystery Caller

(It's got some very minor S7 spoilers, if you're really squeamish about those!  Which I, these days, am not.  The little ones, anyway.  Nothing big, but I'm not quite a Mary anymore.)

I want to be working.  Instead, I'm applying for jobs online, sending the last few invitations for my sister's wedding shower, getting ready to write the last little bit of chapter 17 that got deleted last week, perusing the forums, and trying to get as much of my online work done as I can, so that I feel like I'm at least being semi-productive.  But I'm not making any money doing this.  Ah, such is the life of a temp.

And yeah, chapter 15 of And When She Was Good is up.  So is chapter 7 of Algonquin Escapade, and chapter 3 of Come Away With Me.  Go look!!

And because I need a procrastination break, this was stolen from rubykatewriting:

1. Are you named after anyone? If so, explain.
My first name (Alida) was my great-grandmother's name; my middle name (Ruth) is my mom's middle name.

2. Do you have your children's names picked out already?
Not set in stone, but there are ideas.  I like Elizabeth (but shortened to Ella or Elly) Cailiosa , Madeleine Anne, or Isabella (no middle name with that one yet) for girls, or Davin Micah, Kieran Matthew, or Elliott James for boys.

3. If you were born a member of the opposite sex what would your name have been?
Eric (my mom's maiden name is Erickson).  I'm not sure why they didn't go with Erica, then, but I like my name better anyway.  My brother got Eric as one of his middle names, so they got to use it.

4. If you could re-name yourself what name would you pick and why?
When I was 5 I tried to re-name myself "Star Princess."  Does that count?  I put it on my school papers and everything!  I wouldn't trade it, though--when I was in junior high, I really liked common names spelled in very unusual ways, and then I realized that was just cruel.  But having an unusual name spelled unusually?  No problems with that.  If I give my kids strange names, they have nothing to complain about, because I managed just fine!

5. Are there any mispronunciations/typos that people do w/ your name constantly?
Constantly.  I get it pronounced Ah-Ly-Dah or Ah-Lid-Ah, instead of Ah-Lee-Da.  As for spelling?  Oh, you name it.  Alita is the most common, but I get Aleda, Aleta, Oleta, Olida... all kinds of weird vowel combinations.

I think I'm getting things to beta from both adinarj and lady_m2835 tonight.  I'd better be, at least.  Consider this my not-very-threatening threat, ladies.  Heh.  I need to get out of my own head for a day or two.



Oh yeah--I read this today, and I loved it.  Just wanted to pass it along, for anyone else who feels like reading a slightly angsty, heartwrenchingly well-written Rory/Jess one-shot.  It's really short; it'll just take a minute to read, but it's totally worth it:  Between the Lines, by colorscope.

Random:

Logan pulls a Zoolander.





Or, at least, that's what it looked like to me when I paused it.

(That, and go read "Blame Finn and Lorelai" by lady_m2835. You'll laugh for days.)