I have a cold.
Sep. 28th, 2002 11:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynAt least, I think I do. I'm sneezing like mad, my eyes hurt, my eyes itch, and allergy medication doesn't work. I'm stuffed up to the point where I can't smell much of ANYTHING.
But this does not matter, and do you know why?
I had a bar of dark chocolate with ground espresso beans in it today.
I had beef vindaloo and a scallion pancake and mint chutney made with urad dal and a spinach-and-tofu dish that made me happy because it reminded me how tofu began its widespread use as a monastic cheese substitute in the lactose-intolerant population of ancient China.
I had 20/15 vision and a gorgeous clear day with around two hundred miles' worth of driving into the Hudson River Valley. (This means slightly more if you know that prior to 1999, I had 20/400 vision. I loves me some of that LASIK action.)
I saw a hawk dive into my yard and catch a bluejay yesterday - sad for the bluejay, but a reminder that nature is alive and present even in the so-called 'tame' world humans make, and she will not be denied.
I made rye bread today. Real rye bread. Forty-eight hour prep time, three stages of sour preparation, wholegrain rye flour, first clear flour, and an assload of caraway seeds rye bread. Two big beautiful loaves of it.
I have Civilization III for my computer and am rediscovering why I so loved this franchise. Oh, Civ Call to Power was okay, but this is old school, and I love it. Special marks on squares are for increasing production, not for making trade goods; world leaders have personalities you can rely on; the Great Library and the Pyramids and the Colossus and Leonardo's Workshop on the list of wonders even if their powers are a little different from last version; all of it. I'm goin' to Alpha Centauri, not building some friggin' grow-your-own-alien kit. Only this time they've added a bright shiny new element: Culture Fu. No, seriously. Your civilization's borders expand based on how many culture points each city generates per turn, so one city's influence can extend weeee beyond the squares its people work, and if your culture is high enough and the guy next to you is low enough, your Culture Fu overwhelms his and the people in his nearby city petition to join you. Oh, and did I mention they removed 'Fundamentalist' from the list of possible governments? One of the things I hated about Call to Power was the way I inevitably wound up in competition with a Theocratic government towards the end game. Very annoying. This is the true heir to the Civ name and as such I love it dearly even though I've had it only two days.
I know what my next video game purchases will be. I'm afraid they cater to my rampant Sinophilia, as one of them is Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom, a citysim game using ancient China for its scenarios, and the other is called Prince of Qin and just looks cool. Considering that my first Civ III game was as Hiawatha of the Iroquois and the next was as Xerxes of Persia, y'all can bite me if you've got some kind of problem with that..
It's warm in the house. I've had bread I made with my own hands. There's orange juice in the fridge, and if I feel icky in the morning, so what? I don't have to go to work. I'll make up for my other obligations after I sleep late in my nice warm cozy bed.
All in all, my life is good, and I am truly and deeply grateful for every last bit of it. Even the cold. How else would I appreciate my otherwise good health?
Today's pulp survival tip is 22. Be nice to old people, especially if they had useful skills once. It's amazing how many of them jump at the chance to relive their former glories.
But this does not matter, and do you know why?
I had a bar of dark chocolate with ground espresso beans in it today.
I had beef vindaloo and a scallion pancake and mint chutney made with urad dal and a spinach-and-tofu dish that made me happy because it reminded me how tofu began its widespread use as a monastic cheese substitute in the lactose-intolerant population of ancient China.
I had 20/15 vision and a gorgeous clear day with around two hundred miles' worth of driving into the Hudson River Valley. (This means slightly more if you know that prior to 1999, I had 20/400 vision. I loves me some of that LASIK action.)
I saw a hawk dive into my yard and catch a bluejay yesterday - sad for the bluejay, but a reminder that nature is alive and present even in the so-called 'tame' world humans make, and she will not be denied.
I made rye bread today. Real rye bread. Forty-eight hour prep time, three stages of sour preparation, wholegrain rye flour, first clear flour, and an assload of caraway seeds rye bread. Two big beautiful loaves of it.
I have Civilization III for my computer and am rediscovering why I so loved this franchise. Oh, Civ Call to Power was okay, but this is old school, and I love it. Special marks on squares are for increasing production, not for making trade goods; world leaders have personalities you can rely on; the Great Library and the Pyramids and the Colossus and Leonardo's Workshop on the list of wonders even if their powers are a little different from last version; all of it. I'm goin' to Alpha Centauri, not building some friggin' grow-your-own-alien kit. Only this time they've added a bright shiny new element: Culture Fu. No, seriously. Your civilization's borders expand based on how many culture points each city generates per turn, so one city's influence can extend weeee beyond the squares its people work, and if your culture is high enough and the guy next to you is low enough, your Culture Fu overwhelms his and the people in his nearby city petition to join you. Oh, and did I mention they removed 'Fundamentalist' from the list of possible governments? One of the things I hated about Call to Power was the way I inevitably wound up in competition with a Theocratic government towards the end game. Very annoying. This is the true heir to the Civ name and as such I love it dearly even though I've had it only two days.
I know what my next video game purchases will be. I'm afraid they cater to my rampant Sinophilia, as one of them is Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom, a citysim game using ancient China for its scenarios, and the other is called Prince of Qin and just looks cool. Considering that my first Civ III game was as Hiawatha of the Iroquois and the next was as Xerxes of Persia, y'all can bite me if you've got some kind of problem with that..
It's warm in the house. I've had bread I made with my own hands. There's orange juice in the fridge, and if I feel icky in the morning, so what? I don't have to go to work. I'll make up for my other obligations after I sleep late in my nice warm cozy bed.
All in all, my life is good, and I am truly and deeply grateful for every last bit of it. Even the cold. How else would I appreciate my otherwise good health?
Today's pulp survival tip is 22. Be nice to old people, especially if they had useful skills once. It's amazing how many of them jump at the chance to relive their former glories.
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no subject
Date: 2002-09-29 12:39 am (UTC)Second, I, too, always approve of Nature Doing the Right Thing. Contrast with the goofy Goddess Festival people who thought it was cute to feed the raccoons. This is a wrong thing, especially when you then have to shoo the little banditos out of the cabins in broad daylight.
Third: Yay Civ III, which I'm sure is very good crack.
Fourth: I was at Karen (widow of noted author Poul) Anderson's house yesterday, helping her prep to move down to SoCal (WHY I don't know, ptui) and came upon a book full of pre-Warring States Sichuan piccies. It was a catalog of an exhibit in Seattle, and at only three years old is probably still in print.
You want this book. Actually, my first declaration was:
"My former college roommate, who-really-exists-dammit, is as nutty Sinophiliac as we are hopelessly Teutonocentric, Diana, and she would give her left eye for this book."
Diana unleashes her Vorpal Eyebrow at me, "Um... Lorrie?" in the 'y'know, people in tight with Odin maybe should not be so quick with the eye-giving jokes' voice.
I backpedalled. "Well, okay. She'd want to give her left eye for maybe five seconds, then would calm down to something more reasonable."
Random other helper, who has been amusing and punny all afternoon: "So is there a hierarchy for that kind of thing? Are there things for which you'd say, 'Oh, I'd give a mild cataract for that?'"
... but maybe you wouldn't. Looks to be the same exhibit that came to the Met, for I see one of their piccies is just like one of your user icons. Did you get the exhibit catalogue?
-- Lorrie
no subject
Date: 2002-09-29 10:09 am (UTC)I did not give an eye. I gave $54. That is approximately one-one hundredth of an eye, considering the price of my LASIK and attendant scans and procedures (they count the price of your corneal scan separately because it may well reveal that you should not have the LASIK at all)... actually, no, that's one-fiftieth of an eye, the LASIK was $5300 for both eyes and the corneal scan was around $150. That is also one-fifth of a tooth, although since the teeth in question were wisdom teeth and not eyeteeth (see the old saying "I'd give an eyetooth for $thing"), it probably doesn't count.
no subject
Date: 2002-09-29 11:10 am (UTC)J, that's so... well, okay, I'd say something like that too, but damn that's very you and very geeky.
-- Lorrie