I don’t know why I like the Life is Good brand so much. It promotes outdoor activities as well as some world peace-type values, but it’s so ubiquitous that I suspect it’s highly corporatized even if they do have a nitty gritty background. But I’m not even really into outdoor pursuits myself, except for kayaking - they do have some kayaking themed products - so I don’t know why I like Life is Good. They are also pretty high-priced, which is why I suspect they’re highly corporatized - that is, they know they have a brand people will want. And I do! Right now the only Life is Good product I have is the blue Half Full short-sleeve t-shirt, but there is a ton of stuff I would buy from them if I could afford it.

Tonight’s CSI season finale totally made me squee multiple times. First of all, tightlacing featured quite prominently! But also, there are two surprises at the end, and they are both very squee-worthy. Let’s just say a certain set of ’shippers have something to be very happy about…

I saw a special recently on the History Channel that was talking about “new evidence” about the sinking of the Titanic. The expedition was looking for evidence of damage to the double bottom of the ship, and sure enough they found a big piece of the bottom a ways away from the other pieces. This was supposedly earth-shattering news, that her bottom was damaged, and they were down there looking because a previous expedition had seen something odd down there.

I’m reading Walter Lord’s book “The Night Lives On,” which talks a bit about theories about the sinking. On page 65 I found this:

Rather, [the flooding of Boiler Room 4] came from a separate injury to the ship, probably to the double bottom, entirely apart from the familiar gash along the starboard side. In short, the ice did even more mischief than generally thought.

This surprised me - the book was written in 1987! The original sighting of the torn portion didn’t happen until 2000, and then they went down again in 2005 and confirmed it was a piece of the double bottom. But they were talking about it as if it was totally new, utterly changed what we know about the sinking, etc - and yet Walter Lord mentioned it in 1987! I just found that odd.

Thanks to information from mactavish and crayonbeam, I learned about the recent affiliation Pleasant Company (makers of the American Girl dolls and products) formed with Girls Inc., an organization that supports abortion rights and acceptance of gay women. Conservative groups are encouraging members to boycott American Girl as a result. I just sent the following to Pleasant Company through their e-mail form.

Hello,

I wanted to express my appreciation to you for your recent affiliation with Girls Inc. I have been a fan of American Girl dolls since there were only three of them, and I have kept a close eye on products over the years. My household is an AG home: I have one doll, my life partner has one doll, and her sister has two dolls. We don’t have any children yet, but if we have a little girl she will definitely get an American Girl of her own.

Until recently I was not aware that AG was well-respected in conservative communities. Like many conservatives, I applaud Pleasant Company for providing resources for young girls to learn more about themselves and the world around them.

I recently learned that conservative groups are encouraging a boycott of AG products because of your recent affiliation with Girls Inc. to sell their “I CAN” bands. I urge you not to give in to pressure from these groups! Girls Inc. supports the growth of girls into responsible young women, and encourages tolerance, acceptance, and open-mindedness - ideals exactly in line with what American Girl products teach. I congratulate you on your alliance with Girls Inc. and I look forward to seeing more quality products from Pleasant Company.

Sincerely,
Meredith P.
Vienna, VA

It’s going to be a good vacation, because the cosmos are in alignment - my awful co-worker wasn’t even here today! In between smiling and nodding while chatting with her very friendly drama queen replacement (who I had to tell not to talk on the phone about condoms while in a professional office), I browsed the 2005 expunged LiveJournal list and picked out a set of fun names. These are only available to users who purchase a $15 rename token - they can’t be created as new journals or communities. (Also, as a side note, I’m thinking about revamping my entire website. More to come on this later.)

artsluts batdyke* chocokat dorkify ewww faggotry	girlgasm hellminx infonerd jhchrist kuteness lazydiva	missmeow netguide otaku plumdumb quelquun ryanisms	scoozie theblog unbodied veggiefu wordshop xpiratex
yarnspin		zenkitty

* - and her sidekick gaygirl

What a cosmic surprise - I’ve won at Blingo. I couldn’t sleep because I kept feeling anxious about the situation with my co-worker, so I got up and got the computer out again. I intended to just slink around on Second Life for a while, but I watched the Gmail Notifier cycle through my new e-mails. I saw there was one that said I’d won at Blingo! Talk about perking up from a funk!

I opened the e-mail immediately, and it turned out that Fellow Eskimo, who had signed up through me, won a Sony Playstation Portable while logged in at Blingo! According to the tiered structure, that meant I won the same prize. I just about fell down with excitement as I ran to tell my wife about it before running back downstairs so she could try to fall asleep again. When I pulled up the prize claim page, it gave me the option of the PSP or $249 cash. I logged onto LambdaMOO to consult with friends there, and most of them encouraged me to take the PSP. I thought about it and realized that even if I had a PSP, it was unlikely I would actually play with it very often - better to spend the cash on something I’d really use. So I filled in the form, and *poof* I’d won the cash! (sorry firesign3000) I have no idea what I’ll spend it on - all of the things I was considering recently are still possibilities.

• pinkandsparkly got a stupid response from a “women only” dating site that apparently doesn’t realize butches are women too, and she wrote an excellent response.
• I am continuing to have fun with my quilt and playing Divinitas. I took a break from butterfly-hunting for a few days, but then I suddenly found a whole bunch and now I’m up to 65! I have almost 100 cards (well, by total worth) in Divinitas.
• dayzeeedogg had a cool idea of using LiveJournal’s Random Journal function and reporting on findings; that may be a good writing prompt-type activity.
• I pulled the tape off my stitches after a shower the other night. It looks like the top two are probably going to be partially under the skin by the time I get them taken out, but hopefully the bottom three will stay on top. The whole thing is shorter than I thought - it’s not even an inch long and it looks like it’s healing well. It hurt a lot after I took off the dressing but it’s okay now except when I’m driving because of the tension in my right leg (operating the pedals, that is).
• I haven’t been on Second Life lately. I haven’t even been on MOO. I guess I’ve been enjoying new projects. I want to get back to MOO, though, and ODP.
• Some private family stuff has been taking over a lot of my thoughts and energy lately. I’m behind on a lot of things. I am looking forward to our road trip next week - we will probably leave on Friday morning sometime.

I had a rough day yesterday, part of which was my own fault. I wore Birkenstocks I bought at least six years ago for the first time in a long time, and it made my feet hurt a whole lot by the end of the day.

I’ve been thinking about a few things. I’m thinking about quitting kayaking because I’m not strong enough. We tried to bring the boat to my mom’s house yesterday, but the winds were really strong and I couldn’t secure it down tight enough. We had gotten as far as River Road on the Beltway and I had to pull over and readjust everything. After that I turned around and brought the boat home. I will give it one more try - I’ll try to take it to Lake Anna this coming weekend. If I can’t do that, I may well give up.

I’m thinking about quitting Literotica, too. I have made some friends there but people like Stuponfucious and Marquis hurt me too much for me to keep it up. I can’t put them on an ignore list either, because I’m a moderator and because it’s against my personal principles. So I am thinking about leaving, even if that means they won. I’ll have to talk about it with my co-mod and see what he thinks.

I’m just tired. And I do not have any nice relaxing weekends at home in the near future. I am on my way to the conference, which should be interesting. But anymore I feel like interpreting is the only thing I am remotely good at anyway.

corsetCorsetCORSETCORSETCORSET

Ahem. My corset from todiefordesigns is here. More to follow.

Okay, it’s later now.
I like it, but it’s far from perfect. The biggest problem is that it’s too long in the front, which is completely my fault because I specified how long I thought it should be. It’s also too big in the front hips. I think if it had come down as far in the back as it did in the front that might not have been a problem, but that’s not the way it is. I’m not getting any reduction from it as far as I can tell, but that might be because my damn weight keeps fluctuating so I couple potentially be a couple of inches different from what I was when we measured it…or maybe we measured wrong in the first place. Or maybe we tied it wrong (it is gapping). Hell, I don’t know. There are a lot of things wrong. But I still like it.

click to enlarge

Don’t mind the funky little satin nightie I’m wearing underneath.

Later the same night: I’m quite certain I hadn’t put it on right. After all, todiefordesigns has made many custom corsets, but I’ve never worn one before and A hasn’t ever laced one before. So we’ll try again.