Virgers! How are we doing with those explosives?

You can remove the "share this" buttons on your journal (or at least kill their functionality - it removes them in Firefox, but I gather some browsers leave them disabled but visible). it goes like this: go to

http://www.livejournal.com/customize/options.bml?group=customcss

You'll see a box called "custom stylesheet." Enter:

.b-repost-item {display:none}

and save.

(I've seen this posted on various people's LJs, most recently via a link from izhilzha so can't claim any credit, but I thought I'd pass it on).

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/485635.html.

I'd like to think I didn't need to ask but, for the record: please don't share comments to entries on my LJ on Facebook* (even public entries; I can't imagine any of my flist would break flock, but please don't do that either). I'm extremely uncomfortable with any link between my LJ and Facebook and hence what we laughingly call RL, largely because I don't trust Facebook. I'm seriously considering turning comments off on my LJ, although I'm reluctant to do so because I know some of you prefer LJ and don't want the hassle of open ID (though it's really very simple - but I admit you lose the icon function) and I would miss you.

On a related note: I find it hard to believe that anyone who wants a DW code hasn't got one, but I have some, so should you fall into that category, PM me.


* I'm less bothered by sharing comments to public posts on Twitter.

What song are you currently addicted to?

I'm not, really, though I've had various Duckworth-Lewis songs on my mind of late.

What's your favourite season?

Either spring or early autumn.

What’s the latest movie you watched?

Toy Story III (and yes, I cried).

What is the one skill you wish you had?

Would it be cheating to say hand-eye co-ordination?

What’s your current fandom/obsession/addiction?

Um - I'm in a bit of a lull at the moment. Who, I suppose, and I still keep up with Harry Potter fics (mostly gen).

What's your favourite musical instrument?

I don't think I have one. I like the cello a lot, or the human voice.

What web sites do you always visit when you go online?

Gmail, Facebook, LJ/ DW.

What was the last thing you bought?

Camera (Sony Alpha). No, I tell a lie, it was train tickets (Oxenholme to London Euston).

If you won 10,000 bucks today, what would you do with it?

Er... Buy books. Put it in the bank and go on a round the world trip at some point when I can do that. Give some away.

Favourite time of day?

Twilight.

What's the last thing that made you happy?

I baked a cake this afternoon, and it turned out pretty well (after some vicissitudes). And I really enjoyed myself on the Berwickshire coast yesterday, photographing interesting rocks, interesting boats, and seals in Eyemouth Harbour.

Do you want to learn another language?

I am learning NT Greek. I'd like to be able to speak French or Italian.

Five things you can’t live without.

Books. A camera. The internet. Tea.... lizw said, the Eucharist, but I'm not sure whether the Blessed Sacrament counts as a thing or not.

These are the rules. "If you’ve been tagged, you must write your answers in your own LJ and replace any question that you dislike with a new question.
Tag eleven people. Don’t refuse to do that. Don’t tag who tagged you."

Am ignoring this entirely!

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/485301.html.

Today has been frightfully expensive - though the only unplanned item of expenditure was £10 on a blouse in the Urban Outfitters sale: new glasses (two pairs, in fact), and a shiny new camera (digital SLR, the α230 + twin lenses).

I hope the weather at the weekend will be decent, so I can go out and play with it!

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/485044.html.

I wish I had a Bunter. That is all.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/483860.html.

Happy birthday straussmonster! Or at least - good luck with the packing, and a better after it's done.

Also, beer.

I hate packing. I really hate it, especially when packing for a move.

I generally think I am indifferent to my surroundings - I certainly am untidy to a point that I know would distress a number of my readers - but when my things are taken down and packed away in boxes, I feel oddly bereft, because the place is no longer a home, but just camping space.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/483486.html.

... having had a good but very tiring time in Italy. Didn't get to a post office, but postcards will get posted eventually from the UK!

I read Robert McCrumb's biography of PG Wodehouse, which was good, Natasha Solomon's Mr Rosenblum's List, about a hapless but determined Jewish refugee trying to build a golf course in Devon (better than it sounds, but the author overdid the 'quirky Jewishness' a bit and the 'quirky Devonian yokels' a lot) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which... can I have that bit of my life back? I'd can think of many things I'd rather have done with it.* I really do not care about Mikael sodding Blomkvist, his alleged magnetic attractiveness to women, and his confused sex-life**, or his alleged world-class journalism, which is better than any journalism anywhere in Sweden, and don't you forget it, buddy, or his solipsism.*** (On an unrelated topic, you ought to be careful with this book if you have triggers relating to sexual assault and violence. There are some very nasty bits in it indeed).

Although I admit I am partly annoyed with it because I was lead to believe it was well-plotted and the opening chapter suggested we were going to get a complicated mystery about financial shenanigans, whereas we got a bog-standard serial killer with nasty sexual aspects, though I suppose having two (father-and-son) killers with a different M.O. was vaguely original - except actually it felt like cheating. I suppose this is partly a result of reading a thriller like a detective novel, but... And I called what was going on with the flowers almost immediately, which I generally never do. I don't believe in either Blomkvist or Salander (and if you're really trying to write a character with Asperger's - as Blomkvist speculates - you're doing it very unconvincingly), and I don't particularly want to, as they are both dull as ditchwater and utter Mary-Sues. She's certainly no grown-up Pippi Longstocking, whatever various people have said (though I'm not convinced you can have a grown-up Pippi Longstocking anyway, isn't that like having a grown-up Peter Pan?) Pippi is charming. Salander...isn't. The Biblical bits of the serial killing are silly, and I didn't buy Blomkvist's Pentecostalist daughter - who exists only to solve that bit of the puzzle without realising it - recognising the coded Biblical references as such, even when preceded by names so that everyone thinks they are telephone numbers. I could see someone encoding it like that if they actually wanted to keep it secret, but no-one actually writes out Bible references like "22315" for Exodus 23:15. Or do they in Sweden? It seems unlikely.

Also: Swedish welfare state surely not quite that callously paternalist? (Or if Salandar's previous guardian was really (a) that benign and (b) that convinced she could run her own life, why didn't he try to get her released from guardianship? He is a relatively elderly man and ought to have anticipated the stroke which he in fact had).

And dear God, the writing's boring.



You lot have all been posting busily, so: if you've posted anything you'd think I'd want to see (be that personal news or fic/ fic recs), could you point me at it?

* Incidentally who on earth said it was well-written and translated? It reads like a less idiomatic Dan Brown. (Of course, the translator may have been entirely accurate).

** Not being in an open relationship, I can't really comment on it, but this aspect of the book really did strike me as just a massive male fantasy.

*** Actually, forget Dan Brown. It's more like Left Behind, only with sex, swearing, and worryingly lovingly detailed sexual assault.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/483227.html.

Happy birthday, el_staplador! Hope it's a good one, with a good year to follow!

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/480540.html.

Admittedly I don't often find myself declaring my love for the Oxford Martyrs, but this display of preacherly snark is rather good:

For preaching of the gospel is one of God's plough-works, and the preacher is one of God's ploughmen. Ye may not be offended with my similitude [...] for I have been slandered of some persons for such things. It hath been said of me "Oh, Latimer! nay, as for him I will never believe him while I live, nor never trust him; for he likened our blessed lady to a saffron-bag:" where indeed I never used that similitude [...] But in case I had used this similitude, it had not been to be reproved, but might have been without reproach. For I might have said thus: as the saffron bag that hath been full of saffron, or hath had saffron in it, doth ever after savour and smell of the sweet saffron that it contained; so our blessed lady, which concieved and bare Christ in her womb, did ever after resemble the manners and virtue of that precious babe that she bare. And what had our blessed lady been the worse for this? or what dishonour was this to our blessed lady? But as preachers must be wary and circumspect, that they not give any occasion to be slandered and ill spoken of by the hearers, so must not the auditors be offended without cause.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/480142.html.

Anyone have any brilliant ideas/ recipes for a pudding involving lemons which would be suitable for six people in hot weather, preferably one which can be made in advance?

I have a freezer, but no ice-cream maker.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/479829.html.

The remarkable story on Abd el-Kadr and the Massacre of Damascus, a brave and honourable man (who, trivia fans, is the only Islamic revolutionary to have an American town named after him...)

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/479280.html.

This answer to the question where can I buy a biretta, cappello romana or a zuchetto? made me lol exceedingly...

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/479138.html.

Happy birthday, expectare!

Have just read the Bishop of Fulham's pastoral letter on Synod. Take back every word I said about Ebbesfleet's one being irritating.

On a happier note, I did like the the Bishop of Oxford's take on the matter.

I do sometimes talk about things that aren't inter-anglican rows, honest.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/478743.html.

I'm still feeling gloomy about the state of the church, partly because of the Southwark business, but also, ironically, because of the fallout from General Synod. I suppose the fact that I just reread The Handmaid's Tale, and then read +Ebbsfleet's pastoral letter, which was being commended by one of my traditionalist friends on FB as thoughtful and well-considered, and an example to the other side. (Various things irritate me about said letter, but let's not get into that).

However: while I think Synod's decision on women bishops was right - and I think it would have been impossible to have found a compromise that satisfied all sides - I am sad about the hurt caused to some, about the anger, about the division. It can't be helped, I suppose - what was it Peter Wimsey said about principles?

(Or, as a friend of mine said on her RL blog, the church is called to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep - and right now is in the uncomfortable place of doing both simultaneously).

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/478510.html.

Grrrr.

Of course, since both leaks clearly came from someone on the conservative wing who wanted to make mischief, it's premature to decide that It's All Rowan's Fault - though I see Changing Attitudes already has.

But still, grr. It would be a great shame, on more than one level, if a man of Fr Jeffrey John's calibre remains the best bishop we never had (and God knows the C of E desperately needs good bishops).

ETA: you know what I said about not reading comments on CiF? It also applies to the Torygraph.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/477181.html.

Note to self: reading the comments on articles at CiF about Fr Jeffrey John, Southwark, etc, is an even worse idea than reading CiF comments usually is, as it will leave you with the overwhelming desire to punch someone.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/476886.html.

Happy birthday, sammee42! Sorry we didn't manage to meet up, but I look forward to seeing you later in the year.

Pst! As calapine points out, today for one day only Big Finish are having a rather fabulous sale. The first 50 Doctor Who Big Finishes for £5 a pop...

Be right back, am buying at the very least The Church and the Crown.

(I highly recommend Spare Parts, a chilling Cybermen origins story, and The Council of Nicaea, because it contains theological in-jokes and Five being a church history geek and was clearly thus written specially for me, even if it is a bit pro-gnostic. NB, it is agreed to be very good even by people who are not Anglo-Catholic loons).

ETA: The Church of Nicaea isn't in the sale, tragically. But Spare Parts is, and it is excellent.

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/475989.html.

I have set up a tumblr account.

As yet I suspect I'll just use it to follow other people, but please let me know if you have one...

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/475599.html.

Lawyer and I just watched Rev. Cue horrified laughter, and the occasional cry of "why do I want to do this again?"

But really, very well observed (I loved the horrible cheap vicarage, with the crucifixes in odd places, comedy nun salt and pepper shakers, and piles of books on the draining board). Because like it or not - and however wet and middle-of-the-road the Rev'd Smallbone is - those are my people. God help me. I'm pretty sure I've met the Archdeacon.

(Also, it is very funny, in a cynical black-hearted way - but also with bits where the faith-stuff rings true, though I hope I succeed in developing more of a pulpit presence than Adam).

Crossposted from http://tree-and-leaf.dreamwidth.org/474895.html.

I have written intercessions in less than half an hour. This is, worryingly, an achievement by my standards (and is also not counting the procrastination time, earlier, but I will make up for that by doing Greek tomorrow afternoon, and also, I blame the heat, though it may actually be fanfic's fault).

Of course, if you can't write prayers for the feast of S.S. Peter and Paul you're doing pretty badly because it is something of a gimmee, but still.

On an unrelated note, what is Tumblr, and why?

Nothing much to say about the finale of Who, as yet, for I am tired, except: loved it.



The most striking thing, in a way, was how much it felt like Moffat showing us how he'd have done RTD's themes and concerns, and making something quite different out of it.

Oh, and I have a feeling Matt Smith may have become my Doctor. Well, him and Troughton and Hartnell.

(And I love the fact that the newly wed Mr and Mrs Pond ran off on the TARDIS.)

I also remain very greatly impressed by what Moff and Darvill between them did with the Autons.

(And the fossilized Dalek was really rather creepy - but River dealt with it. I really like River these days...)

You know, I've just thought of something. If the cracks never existed, then presumably Fr Octavian and the clerics who were unhappened exist again? Hurrah!

Oh, Facebook.

It is currently inviting me to like "The Most Revd Rowan Williams" and "Pink Floyd."

Still, better than yesterday, when it was adamant that I should like Sarah's Law (I do not know why, though I can see why both the other choices popped up).