nanila | Entries tagged with meme

The preceding two weeks of Friday Five questions didn't pique my interest, but this week's are great. Love a bit of meta-blogging. Thank you for the opportunity to navel-gaze.

What was the reason you began a Dreamwidth or LiveJournal account (or both)?

I started off on LJ in 2001 because everyone was doing it. I created an account and then let it sit for a couple of weeks while I figured out what it was for. I think it was victorine who prodded me into posting regularly and then I just…never stopped.
How many DW or LJ communities do you subscribe to?

A few dozen in total. Most of them are dead, the LJ communities in particular. The only one I participate in regularly is DW community awesomeers, because I'm one of the two people who puts up the daily “Just One Thing” posts. I find it easier to write a short comment about my day there than to write up a full post, especially during the work week.
Do you have a favorite community or one you check out often to see what's new?

See above. I also enjoy thefridayfive, and I like reading threeforthememories during its annual spate of activity.
How did you pick your user name?

My current username is a play on my actual name. My original LJ name was “lilith” as that's the pseudonym I first adopted when I started interacting with online communities back in the 90s. Eventually I felt I'd outgrown it, and I've been nanila ever since.
If you could change your user name, would you?

That would genuinely be a big decision after more than 15 years of using this one, in a lot more places than DW and LJ. I'd have to do substantive additional navel-gazing to work out what it would be.

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What made you happy this week?

Notification of winning a small summer research grant.
What made you sad?

I was disappointed in a colleague for trying to conceal some serious underperformance when it could have been dealt with easily much earlier on. As it is, now another colleague and I are going to have to put in a lot of effort to attempt to rectify the situation before a deadline next week.
What made you angry?

An academic colleague being outrageously disrespectful to a professional services colleague.
What are you looking forward to in the next week?

Getting that sad piece of work, which should not have been mine in the first place, off my desk at the end of the week.
What are you not looking forward to?

I have to be off-campus for two days next week. I'm not looking forward to the amount of meetings I've had to ram into the other three days of the working week.

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When did you last…

Scrounge for change (couch, ashtray, etc.) to make a purchase?

I honestly can't remember. So many places are cashless now that I often don't carry any. It must have been pre-Covid.
Visit a dentist?

Five months ago. My next clean is in March.
Make a needed change to your life?

The most significant recent change was changing to a gym I actually want to use, at the start of the year. I really needed that. I feel so much healthier.
Decide on a complete menu well in advance of the evening meal?

Most nights, tonight included. We have to plan because of the kids. Most days we eat breakfast and supper at home as a family because we have the luxury of schedules that allow us to do so.
Spend part of the day (other than daily hygiene) totally/mostly naked?

No idea. I hardly ever do this. It's flippin’ cold here most of the time. For those who say the UK temperatures are mild, okay, maybe to you, but I spent most of my life in the tropics before I moved here and I wasn't wandering around naked there either.

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Rejoice, friends, for it is finally the 185th of January, the last day of the month. 🫩

How many times a day do you . . .

Brush your teeth?

Two, morning and evening. Also, before going to the gym, which is a weird quirk I've never bothered to unpack.
Shower?

Once. Twice if I go to the gym.
Check your E-mail?

I do not want to count. Near-continuously from waking until bedtime. I cannot keep up with it. It doesn't help that I have work email from two different institutions and multiple personal email addresses.
Check LJ? (or DW?)

It depends on the week. In non-teaching weeks and during holidays, I can usually read through both once a day. During term time, I do all my f-list / circle catchup at the weekends.

There are exceptions: camping holidays in remote parts of Wales result in zero signal, and grant proposal submission deadlines result in zero personal bandwidth.
Eat?

I usually have two or three meals a day: just after waking, around noon (if I don't have back to back meetings all day), and late afternoon or evening depending on children's activities and exercise classes. If I have the latter, I'll sometimes eat quite late.

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What type of hair do you have? (Thin, Normal, Thick, Frizzy, etc.)

Thick, fine, and wavy. There is a lot of it and it grows very fast.
What color is your hair currently?

Starting from my scalp, the first 5 inches are my natural salt and pepper, which I quite like. Then there are a couple of inches of very faded blue. Then there are another 7 or 8 inches of stripped brassy blonde, from when I was dyeing it at home and then stopped because we redecorated the bathroom and I don't want to mess it up. I mostly wear my hair clipped up or in a tight bun right now. As you may have spotted, I have thus far failed at my new year's resolution to find a new hairdresser.
What colors have you dyed/highlighted your hair?

Black, brown, red, green, blue and purple. When I had dreadlocks, I often had synthetics woven in in bright colours.
If you could dye your hair any color, what would it be?

L'Oréal Blue Mercury is my current favourite.
What is your hair's length?

It's down to my shoulder blade, which is longer than I'd like it to be. I prefer it closer to the tops of my shoulders.

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If you could change one life-changing event in the life of someone important to you, would you?

I know there's a philosophy that experiences make you who you are and you shouldn't wish them away, but I have a few friends who have been through what I feel is a disproportionate and unfair amount of tragedy in their lives. Partner suicide, early death of parents, sudden loss of physical health, financial hardship, homelessness. I don't think any one person should have to go through all of those before the age of thirty. And yet. Here we are. So yes, I absolutely would change that for certain people if I could.
Which do you think is easier to do, being friends for many years, or being life partners for many years?

Uh, neither? Both take work! You have to listen and try to empathise and forgive and communicate. All relationships require effort, and if they don't, someone is being used.
Have you ever walked away from someone you considered a friend?

Yes. It's not very pleasant. But occasionally necessary for the sake of self-preservation.
If you had to choose between telling the truth and hurting a friend or lying and making them happy, which would you choose?

Barring a handful of exceptional circumstances, most of which involve an immediate threat to life, lying and making them happy. Life is difficult enough without intentionally causing pain.
Which would you rather hear--the truth which will hurt, or the comforting lie?

The comforting lie, if it comes to that. I'd hope it wouldn't, most of the time. I'd like to believe that truths can be delivered kindly, most of the time.

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Do you have a favourite cause that you support?
I support multiple causes through charitable donations, but one of the most important to me is the Abortion Support Network, which does exactly what it says on the tin: It helps people in the UK and Europe to get abortions, particularly those who live in areas with restrictive laws.
If so, how do you support it?
I give them as much money per month as I can. When they have fundraising drives, I donate more. When they ask for comments they can use in their promotional materials, I provide as much detail as I can.
Have you been an active member of an organization (attending meetings, volunteering, etc)?
Yes. I was a school governor for a while, and I’ve also volunteered for Parkrun, as well as other charitable organisations.
Have you ever led any group?
No, I’ve never had the capacity with either full-time work or academic study to lead a volunteer group.
If so, how was your experience with it?
See above. I’m sure I’d find it very fulfilling, but it’ll have to wait until I retire (or go part-time).

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via

antisoppist

Grab the nearest book.
Turn to page 126
The 6th full sentence is your life in 2026.

The first book nearest me is Metallurgical Assessment of Spacecraft Materials and Parts by Barrie D. Dunn (1996).

The sentence is: "Special fibres giving more options in strength, stiffness, light weight, and endurance against heat have been developed (Klein 1988)."

The chapter containing it discusses composite materials and ways to control their properties. The thing that makes me happiest about that particular sentence is the use of the Oxford comma.

The second book nearest me is The political diaries of a chief whip by Simon Hart (2025).

The sentence is: "It feels like authority is ebbing with every hour."

The chapter containing it is titled "April 2021-January 2022" and I think we probably all remember painfully well the fiasco that was the handling of pandemic restrictions to which this sentence clearly relates.

Cue hollow laughter as I realise the sentence is applicable to both work and home life. Particularly with a teenager and a tweenager incessantly challenging boundaries.

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Do you mostly drink tap, filtered, or bottled water?

Tap water. I drink bottled water if I forget my refillable bottle, which isn’t very often.
Is it safe/recommended to drink tap water where you live? If not, why?

Yes, it is safe to drink the tap water here. It’s pretty soft water as well.
What does the tap water taste/smell like where you live?

Nothing, which is how it should be!
Do you collect rainwater? If so, what do you use it for?

Yes, we have a water butt in the back garden. We use it to water Keiki’s collection of carnivorous plants all year round, and for the indoor plants in summer.
Do you/have you ever had restrictions on water use where you live? What did you have to change about your lifestyle?

We haven’t had water restrictions here, even when a lot of the rest of the country did last summer. I have lived in places with water restrictions previously (southern California). It taught me to have short showers and/or turn off the water when, say, shampooing or conditioning my hair, which I think are generally good habits anyway. Dishwasher appliances also use less water than hand-washing dishes, which took me a while to accept but once I did, that also reduced my water consumption.

In other news, it has got quite cold here, by UK standards. Scraping off the car in the morning and ice on the roads is what defines "quite cold" here. Those, and the eternal promise of "significant" snowfall. Certainly there has been in a number of places, some of which are a handful of miles from my location, but the photo below shows the extent of the snowfall we have experienced to date!

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Did you get an allowance as a kid, and if so, how much was it?

Nope. I could earn money for doing chores, but it was never a guaranteed tranche of money. And by chores I mean things like washing and hoovering the car, or heavy yard work, not cleaning my room or doing the laundry or dishes. Those were just expected.
How old were you when you had your first job, and what was it?

I was fifteen. I tutored a classmate in pre-calculus at community college where I took summer classes. She paid me $10 per session and would take us both for coffee afterward in her fabulous beat up orange Corvette. We were both so happy when we got our final grades and she went from getting a D to a B+. I often wonder what happened to her.
Which do you do better: save money or spend money?

Oh, spend it, for sure. If I'd been better at saving, I'd be in a much better financial position. But would I have had as much fun? I think not.
Are people more likely to borrow money from you, or are you more likely to borrow from them?

The former. I don't like borrowing money.
What's the most expensive thing you've ever bought?

A house.

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Sauntering Vaguely Downward

Into the land of lowered expectations

The Friday Five

The Friday Five on a Sunday

The Friday Five on a Saturday

The Friday Five on a Saturday

The Friday Five on a Saturday

The Friday Five on a Saturday

The Friday Five on a Sunday

Book fortune-telling meme

The Friday Five on a Sunday, and the promise of snow

The Friday Five on a Saturday

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