Tablesaw!

I've created a new access list for me to talk about my emotions during my breakup. By default, most people with general access to this blog are on this list, with the exception of ojouchan and a few mutual friends that I would not feel comfortable venting to at all. You can visit the introductory post to see if you're on the filter.

This filter is not about "picking sides" in the breakup. It's mostly about keeping our emotional fallout sequestered from each other, so that we can move on healthily. But it's also about letting people decide how much they want to hear about that fallout.

In the process of creating the access list, I also renovated my friends lists on LJ and DW. There wasn't anything particularly drastic; most of the people who I removed were inactive journals. However, the undertaking was large enough that I very likely made mistakes.

If you want access (or want renewed access) to this blog or to the breakup filter, you can comment to this post. All responses are screened.

Appropriately enough, there were seven entries into Tablesaw's Christmas Trivia Bonanza, most of which were submitted in the last twenty-four hours. The answers have already been revealed, and here are the answer sheets of the players. For each question, the players are listed in order of their performance on that question. The player's score is given in the form: [Score for the question] / [Total correct answers for the question] ([Cumulative score]). The player's list follows, with correct answers in bold. My explanatory notes are given in [italicized brackets].

( Question 1: The Bowls )
( Question 2: White Christmas )
( Question 3: Arctic Circle )
( Question 4: Best-Selling DVDs )
( Question 5: Hot Toys )
( Question 6: Christmas Definitions )
( Question 7: Genealogy of Jesus )
( Question 8: Macy's Parade Balloons )

( Final Scores )

Thanks and Congratulations to all who played. I'll be contacting the top three finishers to discuss your prizes (so that I don't send you something you already have). I hope you all are having a Happy New Year!

I like cleaning my house. But I don't like cleaning my house.

I only enjoy cleaning my house in preparation of someone coming over to see my house. I just can't get myself behind the idea of cleaning up just to clean up.

I mean, the boxes that I moved outside for my party the other night. Sure, they were an eyesore taking up room, but they were very handy to rest drinks on while working on the computer.

I have to reexamine my living space from the eyes of another. Suddenly, cleaning becomes a joy as the house transforms.

Speaking of cleaning house, I've cleaned up my friends list a bit, removing some people who post or whom I read sporadically. It was getting up toward 75, and that was a bit much. Some of these "cuts" were hard, and I'll probably be popping in and out on a less regular basis. However...

[Poll #88360]

All decisions are mine to make. Have a good year!

Misericordius
Won't use the lordy us
(A pronoun like the royal we, but more objective)
Because he's got a humbler perspective.

It's been one month since I first started writing clerihews based on the people on my friends list. In that time I've written thirty-six clerihews, encompassing thirty-two friends, leaving twenty-one people clerihewless.

I guess this has been going on long enough that those twenty-one are starting to wonder why they haven't been versified. Well, here's the reason: First, despite the brevity of the verses, these do actually take quite a while to write, often involving extensive research into rhymes and pronunciation. Which leads to the second reason, many of those left to be done have names that I haven't quite figured out how to rhyme/pronounce. Third, I need to feel that I know enough about the subject to encapsulate him or her into four lines, which is difficult sometimes. In fact, there are one or two clerihews I'd like to redo as well.

But to ( you nineteen ), rest assured that I will get to you as soon as I can.

I have this fear that my Clerihew production will never be able to match the total number of friends on my list.

cassieclaire
Chronicles the secret diary of the debonair
Aragorn, who, since he's still not king, is quite a bit antsier
Than your standard pervy hobbit fancier.

An independent woman is starsinmybelly,
Who wouldn't shirk from entering into a melly
With an otherwise wise augur if he
Disparaged her photography.

grunk
Thunk
And scored
A sword.

blistex
Would list X-
Box games like Jurassic Park less
Highly than Eternal Darkness.

caradrina
Have you ever seen a
Clerihew
About you?

It's been two weeks since I switched my journal to friends-only. Two weeks where the first thing on my journal page is a request to contact me. Two weeks that someone hasn't.

When I get home, I'm going to retroactively de-friends-only-ize my journal, with a longer explanation. Till then, some shorter notes.

The deadline for the August Enigma is soon. In fact, tomorrow, so I need to buckle down and get some stuff in. I already completed one, a collaboration with tahnan. I've got one I need to revise and two I need to finish. So, the cavalcade of clerihew is a bit postponed. But in keeping with my NPL bent:

davidglasser's
One of the harassers
Asking me to mete
Out hints for a flat complete.

saxikath
Makes up math
Problems about cattle traders
For second-graders.

The Fourth of July with wjukknibs and company was a lot of fun. It makes me wish I were going to Vegas with lots of people I'd like to spend more time with. Actually, no. It makes me wish that all of those people had decided to go somewhere more interesting.

Speaking of going places interesting, I need to start planning for travel again. My cousin is getting married this fall in Portland, which makes me wonder if I should also try to swing up to Seattle. Then again, veek might send me psychic bombs of death vibes if I don't visit Boston/Providence. And wjukknibs is going to be going to Vegas again. (At least, I assume he is. He always seems to be.) Choices, choices, choices.

It was tough sleeping yesterday. I had to take a very active role in my dreams. I was aware, on a very basic level, that the only reason I was asleep was because I had a light mask on my face and was dreaming. If the dream ended, I knew I would immediately return to consciousness and be unable to get back to sleep. So I had to constantly think of new and interesting places to take my dream, to be sure that I got enough sleep.

MonNYTX: 6:30. Made some mistakes, and also nearly dropped my lunch on the floor. MonLATX: 5. TueNYTX: 4:30. TueLATX: 6:15. Who the hell is 24A? WedNYTX: 6.Under the circumstances, the clue for 52D is fantastic. WedLATX: 8:15. 54D? ThuNYTX: 20. Bleah. ThuLATX: 6:30. FriNYTX: 11:30. FriLATX 7.

Yesterday, during an online chat with members of the National Puzzlers League, I got much kudos for one of my puzzle verses. As a result, I'm still in the poetry-writing frame of mind.

I've got some stuff backed up. My uncle's wedding and maybe some musings on Minority Report. And I intend to declassify my journal with an explanation within the week.

For storme
Husky Scotsmen are the smoochie norm.
She wouldn't have a tryst with
A Welshman in Aberystwyth.

Prounouncing zrblm
Poses a prblm
So Herculean
I'll just bug him by calling him Julian.

emshort,
While nibbling Roquefort,
Chiseled peripeteia
Into Galatea.

The great and all-powerful overlord of evil named sargent
Cares less for metals auric and argent
Than for betes noires
And grimoires.

The work of pbmath
Might provoke the wrath
Of the voodoo-magical loa
Who protects the theory of Galois.

cruciverbalist
Is a hyperbolist
When speaking of well-postured enchanters
At Cantor's.

As of now, I have fifty people lifted on my livejournal friends list. I promised myself a while ago that I wouldn't ever have more than that, so it's time to take stock. Everyone on my friends list is interesting to me in some way, so I thought others might be interested to know what I find so interesting. (Attention meme propagaters: consider this a challenge.)

( A rundown of Tablesaw's LJ friends. )