Cold has gone down a couple of notches, and I was a bit more functional at work today, though still making loud noises at irregular intervals. (And it did give me an excuse to avoid a big optional briefing/position statement after lunch this afternoon, as I pointed out that it would probably not be a good idea for me to be in close quarters in a meeting room with a lot of other people. So no cloud, silver lining, etc.)

I also had the pleasant surprise of another shirting-cotton fabric donation from the friend of a friend who works in a nearby men's tailoring firm. So that was a very nice way to end the day. It was partly a set of those cloth samples you get, where they're pieces of a foot or so of fabric, clipped to a cardboard header giving the name/type/details of the fabric, which you may have seen in fabric or upholstery stores, but all shirting-cotton weight. I can make excellent use of these.

---

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

-- WB Yeats

Three of us at the same desk island at work have The Cold. I suggested that we should put up a sign saying, LORD, HAVE MERCY ON US, or some other suitable plague warning, which got laughs, and then coughs.

The weather continues beautiful.

Second Eurovision Song Contest semifinal was entertaining: I particularly liked Serbia and Portugal, though only Serbia got through, alas.

Had got about a quarter around the hand-stitched binding of my current quilt project when I decided that the thread colour I was using really didn't work. So I unpicked it and started again with a different colour. The new colour looks much better, which to some extent consoles me for having got quarter of the way round the first time before realising that it really wasn't working.

---

In Time of Pestilence

Adieu, farewell earth's bliss!
This world uncertain is:
Fond are life's lustful joys,
Death proves them all but toys.
None from his darts can fly;
I am sick, I must die —
Lord, have mercy on us!

Rich men, trust not in wealth,
Gold cannot buy you health;
Physic himself must fade;
All things to end are made;
The plague full swift goes by;
I am sick, I must die —
Lord, have mercy on us!

Beauty is but a flower
Which wrinkles will devour;
Brightness falls from the air;
Queens have died young and fair;
Dust hath closed Helen's eye;
I am sick, I must die —
Lord, have mercy on us!

Strength stoops unto the grave,
Worms feed on Hector brave;
Swords may not fight with fate;
Earth still holds ope her gate;
Come, come! the bells do cry;
I am sick, I must die —
Lord, have mercy on us!

Wit with his wantonness
Tasteth death's bitterness;
Hell's executioner
Hath no ears for to hear
What vain art can reply;
I am sick, I must die —
Lord, have mercy on us!

Haste therefore each degree
To welcome destiny;
Heaven is our heritage,
Earth but a player's stage.
Mount we unto the sky;
I am sick, I must die —
Lord, have mercy on us!

-- Thomas Nashe

Did CanGames this past weekend (even if jkahane seems to have forgotten it) and had a good time. Picked up a few things (including a few books from the Hellas game and a copy of the Angel RPG that's been interestingly edited.

Ottawa remains fun. I miss it on occasion.

In class now. School is good.

There are currently no site-wide problems.

LEGO Monster Fighters

Playing the classic horror crossover for laughs, as well as for toys.

I particularly like that the villainous plot was actually attempted in Vampire: The Masquerade back in the day. And Lord Vampyre's clearly annoyed bride.

(And just did the math on the parts I'd need to make TWH characters... about ten to twelve quid each.)

Still have cold.

World is miserable place full of depression and woe. (does Zuko impression)

In other news, the sun was shining brightly today and the weather is beautiful.

Hope to be able to breathe a bit better tomorrow.

May 23, 2012 - The official LiveJournal Release 92 has been deployed. Here’s what you’ll find in this latest site update:

NEW

• Particularly long comment threads now collapse with the alert “...and [#] more comments.” Just click on that alert to see the rest of the comments. Here’s what this looks like:


• Notification emails now hide any content that was already placed inside an lj-cut instead of displaying the entire entry.


• Social Capital is now displayed for all communities on the profile page.


• You can now embed the Spotify player into your journal or community style.


• Personal userheads are now available for purchase. A personal userhead is of your own design and is unique to you, unavailable to anyone else. Purchase as many personal userheads as you like; each costs 5,000 LJ FunBux™, and is good for five years. Learn more.

BUGS, FIXED

• Scheduled entries should no longer return errors or double-post.


• Domain mapping should no longer force redirection to the LiveJournal login page.


• The format=light URL modifier works on entry pages again.


• Comment notification emails will send even if the entry has a poll.


• The "Music" section on the edit entries page will let you delete the entire text field.


• The help link next to “Do not add to friends pages and RSS” on the update page now links to the correct FAQ.


• The list of journals and communities added by default for new users has changed to news and lj_releases for non-Cyrillic users.


• Missing navigation items in the Classic journal style have re-appeared.


• Notifications about expiring add-ons will now have correct subject lines.


• The bold/italic/strikethrough buttons in the site default commenting scheme should no longer cause cursor positioning problems in Chrome.


• The Calendar feature will now update properly when you edit an entry and change its date.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD: HELP WITH A VGIFT!
Join us in standing up for reproductive health and education. Through the end of the month, you can send a specially designed Planned Parenthood vgift to your LiveJournal friends to help support this cause. (And if you need someone to send it to frank is always happy to receive gifts!). There are three variations for you to choose from ($1, $5 and $10), but they’d all look good on your profile. Thank you for your support! Learn more.

- The LiveJournal Team

Release #92 is live!

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