( The Stolen Earth/Journey's End - MASSIVE spoilers )

And now for a bit of entitlement whining about the kind folks who encode and upload things like these last four eps of Doctor Who. First - I'm immensely grateful; I really am. This gratitude gets multiplied by about a hundred when we're talking about fansubs - I have some idea of the kind of work that goes into them. If not for these people I would have to wait weeks to see crucial episodes of shows like Doctor Who (perish forbid) since I have the misfortune to be geographically challenged when it comes to British TV. I wouldn't be able to see other shows, like Sentai, at all. I appreciate it, guys, seriously.

But - why do so many encoders use codecs and other methods that make their files unplayable on many devices? Not everyone has the expertise to hunt down the proper codecs. Not everyone has a PC, and Mac users don't have the same software available. Some people, like me, vastly prefer to watch on our TVs. There are an increasing number of media players, DVD players, and game consoles that can play compressed video files, and so far they all choke on newer, less common codecs and on packed bitsteams, Qpel, and GMC.

So - would it be entirely out of line to suggest the use of plain vanilla Xvid or DivX encoding without packed, Qpel, or GMC? Yes, I know it's telling you how to do your encoding, but it's a suggestion, like suggesting a fanfiction author use a readable font and skip the fancy colored background. Encoders obviously take pride in offering the best possible quality in the smallest possible file - why not consider offering the most widely compatible file? On the practical side, all the things that make players barf add little to the quality of a compression, and I know I and probably many others would prefer to download a few more megabytes or give up a probably undetectable bit of extra quality for the sake of vegging out on my couch while watching without having to re-encode the damn file first.

My two cents. Maybe more like a nickel.

Stolen from zippitgood :

Top 100 books you should have read meme.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them

( How many, how many, I wonder? )

I'm kind of surprised by how many I've read and by how many I've never heard of before.

(In some cases I really wasn't sure - there are some I read as a young child and remember only vaguely, and in a few cases I saw the movie and had to stop and think whether I had read the book too. The mind starts to go as you get old.)

Happy Birthday to the_astronomer!

Here's a handy link:

http://www.thepregnancytester.com/

This site offers an online pregnancy test using its Remote Sensor Technology to scan your body through the internet for indicators! Amazing! Turns out I'm pregnant - a pretty cool trick considering my current state of reluctant celibacy, not to mention my age. And the baby's a girl. I was also rather surprised to learn my baby daddy is Dick Cheney. I think he'd be surprised too.

Oh, and in a brief flash of insanity I tried to come up with a smush name for Andrew/Rose, and got Andros. Um, no.

A very happy birthday to itsbuttery aka Arrow! By either name a leader of men and a follower of women!

Funny how writing goes sometimes. I'm into the next chapter of "Between the Lines", covering Mack's leaving the Perfection Planet and subsequent changes to the Ranger lineup on the Astro Megaship. I had fun writing Andrew's intro as his heartburning about Rose is interrupted by another (hopefully) colorful messenger with Mack's latest letter. Then on to Mack's scene leaving Perfection - which I wrote. And didn't like. And trashed and rewrote. And bogged down in stilted dialogue that went nowhere because dammit, I was writing it as a group scene and Mack wants a conversation alone with Artemis. *sigh*

So, despite the usual fears of heading into Mary Sue territory with a beautiful OFC and a hint of romance with the canon hero, there seems to be no other way to write it.

A big Happy Birthday to estirose! May the next year be a good one!

A big Happy Birthday to germankitty! I know things haven't been very happy for you lately, but here's hoping the coming year will be better.

First, happy birthday to starandrea!

And the vet says Cyclone is better and hopefully can go home tomorrow morning.
 

Looks like Cyclone may turn out okay for a while longer, after all - his kidney failure is still mild and what he has now is pancreatitis, which is very serious but can be treated. He has to stay in the hospital and be kept on intravenous fluids and antibiotics for a few days, and if his pancreas responds and gets back to normal he should be able to come home. Interestingly, the pancreas is the organ that regulates insulin and blood glucose - I wonder if the inflamation and the treatment will have an effect on his diabetes. Also I don't know what I'm going to feed him in the future - he needs low carbs for the diabetes, low protein for the kidney disease, and now low fat for the pancreatic disease. Arg, there's nothing left!

I'm cautiously hopeful - that cat is an amazing survivor: eighteen years old, diabetic and with early kidney failure, and still going.

My kitty Cyclone (the one with diabetes) is at the cat hospital for a few days after pretty much not eating since Saturday and becoming dehydrated. The vet thinks his borderline kidney failure may be not so borderline anymore. They're going to give him fluids and do tests and see if he improves, but considering his age and the diabetes I don't have a good feeling.

I guess I'm sick again; I've been running a fever today between 99 and 100 F. Oddly, outside of being very hot I have no other symptoms and don't feel at all bad, even did a mild workout.

Oh right, I have discovered Gilad, the 'Israeli studmuffin', while transferring some taped exercise shows to DVD for a friend. He wants to pump me up, and I'm willing.

Gotten from hagar_972:

Here's a meme for fanfiction writers that I thought was interesting.

( And since I love to talk about myself... )

And I tag - anyone who wants to.

Gotten from kahva:



Interesting and accurate. While I've lived in New Yawk for *mumble mumble* years, I grew up in Washington DC, North Carolina, Texas, and Florida, hence no real regional accent.

And if anyone remembers yesterday's bitching about the drugstore - when I went back last night they kept me waiting almost an hour despite my prescription having sat there for two days, and I have a feeling it would have been longer if I hadn't planted myself at the counter and complained loudly. At least this time I got it.

So last night I went to pick up a prescription for insulin syringes for my cat Cyclone that I had dropped off at the drugstore Sunday. First the guy kept me standing there for twenty minutes while he looked for it, tried to find my records in the computer (after asking me to spell my name at least five times), and then told me my prescription had expired. (Since yesterday???) Finally, it turned out someone had stuck it in a corner because they were out of stock. So poor Cyclone went without his injection this morning because I really, really don't like the idea of reusing a needle.

Granted it's largely my fault for waiting until almost the last minute to get a new prescription, but jeez - what kind of pharmacy runs out of insulin syringes?

Probably most or all of you have seen this story by now. Obviously it's a victory for equal rights advocates, but it's going to be a struggle to hold on to that victory. It may also provide ammunition to conservatives in the upcoming election; I'm sure they'll try to appeal to the sort of voters who think same-sex marriage will destroy the traditional family.

I think it's a wonderful step in the right direction; California is not only a big state but sort of a trend-setter. Also I'm pleasantly surprised by Gov. Schwarzenegger, who after coming down against gay marriage in the past said that he would not support a state constitutional amendment to undo the court decision. I'm slightly disappointed by both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who support equal rights but only in the form of civil unions, and both of whom want to leave it to the states.

I should admit here that I also used to think civil unions was a reasonable way to resolve the issue while retaining marriage for man/woman only, but after I took some time to do a little reading and thinking I changed my mind. On the surface, civil unions are fine as long as they carry the same rights, responsibilities, and privileges as marriage - but in practice it's not working that way and never will. 'Separate but equal' was supposed to solve the race problem and it turned out to be 'separate but unequal', not to mention supporting the idea that different races aren't 'meant' to mix. I saw it in action. No, the only way to guarantee equality is to grant the right to the same institutions, and by doing that to recognize that same-sex couples have the same feelings, make the same commitments, and deserve the same acknowlegement and support from society as opposite-sex couples.

Hopefully New York, which is basically more liberal, will get there too, soon. It's inevitable, and I remind myself of that. Sooner or later, it's coming, and someday the opponents of equal marriage will be looked on the same way that opponents of the legalization of mixed-race marriage and desegregation are looked on now, as sincere but misguided products of their time when we're being nice and bigots when we're not.

Link to learn more and/or donate: http://www.hrc.org/

Sorry for the tl;dr, and I'll be climbing off my soapbox now.

A very happy Mother's Day to mzdany, germankitty, and all the other moms out there in internet land!

From germankitty</lj>:

Top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing (that sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded).

Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish. and add * beside the ones you liked and would (or did) read again or recommend.

( And the list... )

I may have read more but don't remember them, in which case they didn't make much of an impression. Also it sounds stupid but in some cases I can't remember if I read the book or just saw the movie.