Cheering visit and python email!
Jun. 30th, 2009 10:28 pm![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badgerbagIncoherent and a little freaked out all day. My hands hurt enough that I was terrified. I poked at my work very slowly with my left hand. I can type okay for a bit but not very good mousing/trackpad control - that part hurts. Could not pour gallon of milk, lift my coffee mug with my right hand, pushing my chair hurt like hell. Also, cramps, and started my period. Also exhausted in general (I didn't sleep well b/c of pain.) J. kind of caught me struggling with the heavy office door and i just kind of gaveup and asked her for a push to the bathroom. the carpet reallyk sucks. she was casual about it (since she is often physically messed up herself she is understanding about how it feels on many levels) but when i got back to my desk i just sat there and cried feeling so humiliated. i just worked from home for over 2 weeks because of being sick and now this? Anyway , I asked for help catching up a bit, and just went slower and paused more.
wild irises came over to me being kind of low and spaced out.
good bits, i am walking well, reading lots of fabulous books. Beyond Uhura was great! I recommend it ! the bits about the mob and .. well, no spoilers! but, fantastic!
Read one fo the first sf books i ever read - The Humans of Ziax II and the Drought on Ziax II. I still like them!
Read Saffy's Angel which was so perfect and great! If I start writing about it i won't be able to stop!
Read two Tolliver Family books which were exactly like the Happy Hollisters, except the boys are even nicer to their sisters. Realized that I had never in any girlycon-ish book about children solving mysteries or going on unrealistic camping trips while riding their own ponies and so on, encountered an African American character who wasn't a servant (and wasn't a caricature). Even Cherry Ames manages to have a giant moral about america the melting pot without there ever being a black person in the entire U.S. in any role at all. So it was quite awesome to read about Cleve, Jan, Penny, Gordo, Louella, and their friends and parents, motoring about in their station wagon or messing with shetland ponies, riding their riding mower, drinking wholesome milkshakes and catching thieves. The key bit in my mind that's fun is that everywhere they go everyone's lovely to them. Like, if they knock over an enormous tower of boxes in the store and lose their little sister Lou Baby, everyone comforts them and somebody gives Lou Baby a cookie and they go on their way having made a lot of instant new friends who are ready to help them catch the pet smugglers. And if you go to the TV station to fill out the form for your singing brothers and sisters to all enter the contest, then a friendly news man takes you on his TV show right that minute so you can announce your missing pony. Kind strangers with twinkling eyes joke around and also admire you and give you rides into town. This is true for all imaginary children such as the Bobbsey Twins and the Hollisters but I've never read a little kids' book where kids who weren't white just gallivant around all carefree calling the police to come with fingerprint kits and then they like, get some ice cream and everyone is their friend. Refreshing!!
Gordo was my favorite character for the scenes where he's kind to Lou Baby. He pushes her around in the laundry cart (again, an action that only gains him the love and friendship of every adult for miles around... it's a fantasy novel!) and later bicycles all the way home suddenly on impulse instead of going with his big brothers to the robbers' shack, because he needs to bring her a turtle to be her pet. Jan and Penny stick him with babysitting Lou as often as possible!
Jan had some good moments of bravery, especially in the sea cave!
Noted especially in the one about Pirate Island and Bermuda that there was not only a character named Slippery Dick, there was another named Rod Steele. I think maybe the author of the Hollister and Tolliver books had been watching James Bond movies or reading Ian Fleming.
There could easily be another 50 of these books and I'd read them like candy! Why do they stop after the Mystery of the Old Jalopy?! Dammit!
painkiller kicking in obviously since i'm still typing.
Received the following email from Moomin's friend:
(I sent him a list of the commands we did in Unix and Python, plus Snake WRangling for Kids)
ohhh good night!
wild irises came over to me being kind of low and spaced out.
good bits, i am walking well, reading lots of fabulous books. Beyond Uhura was great! I recommend it ! the bits about the mob and .. well, no spoilers! but, fantastic!
Read one fo the first sf books i ever read - The Humans of Ziax II and the Drought on Ziax II. I still like them!
Read Saffy's Angel which was so perfect and great! If I start writing about it i won't be able to stop!
Read two Tolliver Family books which were exactly like the Happy Hollisters, except the boys are even nicer to their sisters. Realized that I had never in any girlycon-ish book about children solving mysteries or going on unrealistic camping trips while riding their own ponies and so on, encountered an African American character who wasn't a servant (and wasn't a caricature). Even Cherry Ames manages to have a giant moral about america the melting pot without there ever being a black person in the entire U.S. in any role at all. So it was quite awesome to read about Cleve, Jan, Penny, Gordo, Louella, and their friends and parents, motoring about in their station wagon or messing with shetland ponies, riding their riding mower, drinking wholesome milkshakes and catching thieves. The key bit in my mind that's fun is that everywhere they go everyone's lovely to them. Like, if they knock over an enormous tower of boxes in the store and lose their little sister Lou Baby, everyone comforts them and somebody gives Lou Baby a cookie and they go on their way having made a lot of instant new friends who are ready to help them catch the pet smugglers. And if you go to the TV station to fill out the form for your singing brothers and sisters to all enter the contest, then a friendly news man takes you on his TV show right that minute so you can announce your missing pony. Kind strangers with twinkling eyes joke around and also admire you and give you rides into town. This is true for all imaginary children such as the Bobbsey Twins and the Hollisters but I've never read a little kids' book where kids who weren't white just gallivant around all carefree calling the police to come with fingerprint kits and then they like, get some ice cream and everyone is their friend. Refreshing!!
Gordo was my favorite character for the scenes where he's kind to Lou Baby. He pushes her around in the laundry cart (again, an action that only gains him the love and friendship of every adult for miles around... it's a fantasy novel!) and later bicycles all the way home suddenly on impulse instead of going with his big brothers to the robbers' shack, because he needs to bring her a turtle to be her pet. Jan and Penny stick him with babysitting Lou as often as possible!
Jan had some good moments of bravery, especially in the sea cave!
Noted especially in the one about Pirate Island and Bermuda that there was not only a character named Slippery Dick, there was another named Rod Steele. I think maybe the author of the Hollister and Tolliver books had been watching James Bond movies or reading Ian Fleming.
There could easily be another 50 of these books and I'd read them like candy! Why do they stop after the Mystery of the Old Jalopy?! Dammit!
painkiller kicking in obviously since i'm still typing.
Received the following email from Moomin's friend:
Subject: Pythons awesome! Re_ Python Its awesome!
Thanks for the link it's really great!
Plus when I type it's it automaticicly puts an apostraphe!
Best Regaurds,
Neutrino
Sent from my iPod
(I sent him a list of the commands we did in Unix and Python, plus Snake WRangling for Kids)
ohhh good night!
Those books were too amazing to put down if only to my 1970s kid eyes I could see what was wrong with them (and boring too) but at the same time, I'd be pissed when I couldn't find sequels because I'd always have book #2 or #3 with book #1 no where to be found in a book sale bin.
Vicky Barr for the crazy crazy win!
I even found a copy of the Arbuthnot anthology of children's literature, which I grew up with; my brother's kids ended up with my mom's copy. Yes, many treasures.
Next Casson book is Indigo's Star, and then Permanent Rose which is my very favorite. Then two more that are okay. I saw on her website that she's thinking of writing a prequel about Caddy when she was younger. Like I said before, I think she missed out not dedicating a whole book to Sarah, who is basically a member of the family (there are other people who sort of fall into the Casson orbit in various books, like this one kid who starts out as a bully and another one who's visiting from America, but not as much as Sarah.)
I should probably warn you that she also has a blog on the website only it is ROSE's blog (Rose is about 11 or 12 by the end of the series) and it is highly entertaining but I recommend NOT reading it till you've finished the whole series as there are spoilers galore otherwise.
--elswhere, of course
of Pirate Island, the very one in the photo here! No wonder
it looks so familiar! I still remember grabbing it off the
floor when everyone rushed the grab bag, b/c it looked like a
BOOK. And it was.
-e
Might have to be virtual, though.
-e
Howver, what you probably want to do is type tar -xvzf (the gzip file) or ummm gunzip (the file) and then read the README and INSTALL files
ping me on IM if you get stuck!