Dreamwidth

I'm redbird over there as well, though tempted to also grab vr (and not just because my favorite fish suggested that two-letter usernames are sexy). I haven't set anything up there yet, except to add bugshaw, who kindly gave me an invite code, and livredor to my reading and trusted lists.

It's still in closed beta, which I'm interpreting as "not everything is here yet, not everything works right, and expect to hear hammers and smell sawdust."

If you'd like to add me, or like me to add you, let me know what name you're using there. They do openid, so exampleusername.livejournal.com will work for letting you see my posts. I'm screening replies here, but will unscreen if asked. Even if you've posted about Dreamwidth, I probably don't remember your username there.

Dreamwidth

I'm redbird over there as well, though tempted to also grab vr (and not just because my favorite fish suggested that two-letter usernames are sexy). I haven't set anything up there yet, except to add bugshaw, who kindly gave me an invite code, and livredor to my reading and trusted lists.

It's still in closed beta, which I'm interpreting as "not everything is here yet, not everything works right, and expect to hear hammers and smell sawdust."

If you'd like to add me, or like me to add you, let me know what name you're using there. They do openid, so exampleusername.livejournal.com will work for letting you see my posts. I'm screening replies here, but will unscreen if asked. Even if you've posted about Dreamwidth, I probably don't remember your username there.

museum with Alan (copied from LJ, partly as a test)

I took today off from work to hang out with Alan, who has been staying with us since Friday. He wanted to visit the meteorites at the Museum of Natural History, so we headed down there in the late morning. (At the moment, the meteorite and mineral halls are open only 10-1 weekdays and afternoons on Saturday and Sunday.) First, Alan admired some of the art in the subway station, and we detoured slightly so I could show him the coelacanth mosaic, having mentioned earlier in the morning that I had researched my coelacanth tattoo in part at the museum. I took the opportunity to renew our lapsed museum membership, and am now trying to convince myself that this doesn't count as treating myself to something with my bonus, because I'd have done this bonus or no.

On our way to the stuff we most wanted to see, we walked through the Hall of Biodiversity, the Hall of New York State Environment, the ground-floor rotunda, and the Human Evolution exhibit. I tend to treat the NY state environment exhibits mostly as a corridor on the way from one place to another. This time, because Alan was interested, we stopped and really looked at things, especially the map showing the dominant foliage for "middle North America," which included a good chunk of Canada, all of the contiguous 48 states, and Mexico as far south as all of Baja California and the northern Yucatan.

Since I was last at the museum, they have renovated that entrance hall, and the Haida canoe is now hung well above eye level, instead of displayed close to the ground. It's a completely different view: I don't think I'd known there were carvings on the bottom.

The meteorite collection is its fine self; we spent quite a while looking at the huge Greenland meteorite, and some smaller stuff. Then into the gems hall: "recent acquisitions" is some fine opals, including some serious iridescence and some nice carvings. One advantage of going to the museum on a Monday morning is that it's not crowded: plenty of time and space to look at the Star of India and the other star rubies and sapphires. The lighting in that hall is much dimmer than I remembered, enough so that the big hunk of amethyst on the floor looked black rather than purple, and I stumbled and almost fell because I missed a step.

Since we had finite museum energy, we then got on the subway down to the Village, where I indulged myself by treating Alan and [Bad username or unknown identity: roadnotes&] to a sushi lunch (again, partly to do something with the bonus other than calling it rainy day money, though I do expect to bank much, even most, of it). So, more good conversation, then I realized I was feeling wiped, so went home while Alan went book shopping.

Also, someone needs to remember the use of quote marks. The museum admission ticket is advertising one of the current special exhibits. Unfortunately, what it says is "Climate Change proudly presented by Bank of America."

Not that I had a high opinion of that bank as is, but I don't think they're solely responsible for this one.

[meta: I got the "date out of order" syntax wrong here; the username syntax was okay, but the rich text editor, trying to be helpful, escaped all the HTML and the quote marks]

Testing

Because I don't like having an empty journal, and am not sure what happens when I import existing content, this is an almost content-free post.

I'm slowly setting things up here, but probably won't leave LJ for a while, at least.

Natural History Museum

I took today off from work to hang out with alanro, who has been staying with us since Friday. He wanted to visit the meteorites at the Museum of Natural History, so we headed down there in the late morning. (At the moment, the meteorite and mineral halls are open only 10-1 weekdays and afternoons on Saturday and Sunday.) First, Alan admired some of the art in the subway station, and we detoured slightly so I could show him the coelacanth mosaic, having mentioned earlier in the morning that I had researched my coelacanth tattoo in part at the museum. I took the opportunity to renew our lapsed museum membership, and am now trying to convince myself that this doesn't count as treating myself to something with my bonus, because I'd have done this bonus or no.

On our way to the stuff we most wanted to see, we walked through the Hall of Biodiversity, the Hall of New York State Environment, the ground-floor rotunda, and the Human Evolution exhibit. I tend to treat the NY state environment exhibits mostly as a corridor on the way from one place to another. This time, because Alan was interested, we stopped and really looked at things, especially the map showing the dominant foliage for "middle North America," which included a good chunk of Canada, all of the contiguous 48 states, and Mexico as far south as all of Baja California and the northern Yucatan.

Since I was last at the museum, they have renovated that entrance hall, and the Haida canoe is now hung well above eye level, instead of displayed close to the ground. It's a completely different view: I don't think I'd known there were carvings on the bottom.

The meteorite collection is its fine self; we spent quite a while looking at the huge Greenland meteorite, and some smaller stuff. Then into the gems hall: "recent acquisitions" is some fine opals, including some serious iridescence and some nice carvings. One advantage of going to the museum on a Monday morning is that it's not crowded: plenty of time and space to look at the Star of India and the other star rubies and sapphires. The lighting in that hall is much dimmer than I remembered, enough so that the big hunk of amethyst on the floor looked black rather than purple, and I stumbled and almost fell because I missed a step.

Since we had finite museum energy, we then got on the subway down to the Village, where I indulged myself by treating Alan and roadnotes to a sushi lunch (again, partly to do something with the bonus other than calling it rainy day money, though I do expect to bank much, even most, of it). So, more good conversation, then I realized I was feeling wiped, so went home while Alan went book shopping.

Also, someone needs to remember the use of quote marks. The museum admission ticket is advertising one of the current special exhibits. Unfortunately, what it says is "Climate Change proudly presented by Bank of America."

Not that I had a high opinion of that bank as is, but I don't think they're solely responsible for this one.

Natural History Museum

I took today off from work to hang out with alanro, who has been staying with us since Friday. He wanted to visit the meteorites at the Museum of Natural History, so we headed down there in the late morning. (At the moment, the meteorite and mineral halls are open only 10-1 weekdays and afternoons on Saturday and Sunday.) First, Alan admired some of the art in the subway station, and we detoured slightly so I could show him the coelacanth mosaic, having mentioned earlier in the morning that I had researched my coelacanth tattoo in part at the museum. I took the opportunity to renew our lapsed museum membership, and am now trying to convince myself that this doesn't count as treating myself to something with my bonus, because I'd have done this bonus or no.

On our way to the stuff we most wanted to see, we walked through the Hall of Biodiversity, the Hall of New York State Environment, the ground-floor rotunda, and the Human Evolution exhibit. I tend to treat the NY state environment exhibits mostly as a corridor on the way from one place to another. This time, because Alan was interested, we stopped and really looked at things, especially the map showing the dominant foliage for "middle North America," which included a good chunk of Canada, all of the contiguous 48 states, and Mexico as far south as all of Baja California and the northern Yucatan.

Since I was last at the museum, they have renovated that entrance hall, and the Haida canoe is now hung well above eye level, instead of displayed close to the ground. It's a completely different view: I don't think I'd known there were carvings on the bottom.

The meteorite collection is its fine self; we spent quite a while looking at the huge Greenland meteorite, and some smaller stuff. Then into the gems hall: "recent acquisitions" is some fine opals, including some serious iridescence and some nice carvings. One advantage of going to the museum on a Monday morning is that it's not crowded: plenty of time and space to look at the Star of India and the other star rubies and sapphires. The lighting in that hall is much dimmer than I remembered, enough so that the big hunk of amethyst on the floor looked black rather than purple, and I stumbled and almost fell because I missed a step.

Since we had finite museum energy, we then got on the subway down to the Village, where I indulged myself by treating Alan and roadnotes to a sushi lunch (again, partly to do something with the bonus other than calling it rainy day money, though I do expect to bank much, even most, of it). So, more good conversation, then I realized I was feeling wiped, so went home while Alan went book shopping.

Also, someone needs to remember the use of quote marks. The museum admission ticket is advertising one of the current special exhibits. Unfortunately, what it says is "Climate Change proudly presented by Bank of America."

Not that I had a high opinion of that bank as is, but I don't think they're solely responsible for this one.

My (brief) Wiscon schedule

Tyrannosaurs in F-14s!!!! Friday at 10:30 p.m. I've asked if it can be made earlier, noting that I realize this may, in fact, not be possible. If not, I will consume extra tea and deal with Saturday when Saturday comes.

[I have also declined to moderate a panel about current SF television on the grounds of ignorance. Asking me was not a concom error: I said I was willing to moderate things I wasn't up to participating in, but I think the moderator for that panel should at least have a television, and ideally have watched at least some of the relevant programs.]

My (brief) Wiscon schedule

Tyrannosaurs in F-14s!!!! Friday at 10:30 p.m. I've asked if it can be made earlier, noting that I realize this may, in fact, not be possible. If not, I will consume extra tea and deal with Saturday when Saturday comes.

[I have also declined to moderate a panel about current SF television on the grounds of ignorance. Asking me was not a concom error: I said I was willing to moderate things I wasn't up to participating in, but I think the moderator for that panel should at least have a television, and ideally have watched at least some of the relevant programs.]