Cryptic cereal

Here's a cryptic crossword clue for you, perhaps jotted on the back of a postcard from Frodo: "Timeless havens are awful. (7)" Don't read the next paragraph if you'd like to solve it yourself.

I picked up a box of Lucky Charms at the supermarket today. On the box was written, "Add MILK to reveal Lucky's hideouts." Only I read it as "hideous." I actually looked at the side of the box, expecting to see the word "secrets" wrapping around the edge.

Alas.

But, you see, I have a LiveJournal now. Welcome.

Reluctant journalist

The combined weight of peer pressure finally convinced me to join LiveJournal; enough of my friends have journals that the benefits of the community outweigh my reluctance. Why reluctance? I'm not sure how this outlet will interact with my other textual modes of communication: SWAPA, the Chat list, personal email, and my professional writing. Having an instant outlet for any thought, and receiving instant commentary on it from my friends, is like a vending machine with a broken coin drawer. Will all the free candy prevent me from taking the time to bake key lime pies and caramel brownies?

Also, I've been on Usenet for twelve years, and any html-based discussion forum feels hopelessly clunky to me; I want proper threading. It doesn't really fit my brain, this completely linear mode of communication, with the long loading times and the tricksy filtering system. And I worry that I'm going to be inundated with email if I ever forget to check the "Don't email comments" box. So we'll see how it goes.

I initially tried to use the "foresty" color scheme, but for some reason it involves a lot of black text on a black background. Clever. I like the current scheme -- it fits the "shale" motif, being earthy and layered -- but while it looks lovely on Mozilla here at work, it has weird black voids in iCab at home. And, for some reason, when I look at my comments they revert to the standard blue/white/orange LiveJournal scheme. Odd.

I did discover that someone had already implemented the first suggestion I was going to make; the Mac LJ client Phoenix communicates with iTunes and automatically fills in the "music" field. That's pretty nifty. I won't be able to use it until I get my new iMac (and, therefore, OSX), but I'm pleased someone thought to do it.

(This is me publicly feeling my way around a new interface; don't mind it. Suggestions are welcome, of course.)

I feel I should introduce my friends to one another, but I don't know the protocols for using real names, so I won't. quixoticdancer is a friend of mine from Ann Arbor, who used to be a co-worker; echo_eriol is a wee Goth chick I met when she was part of the Rocky Horror cast here at the State Theater; everybody else I know from Swarthmore. (I suspect there's some way to link their names to their journals, but I'm not terribly html-savvy yet.) (Hmm...I think I've figured it out. 22:11 2/22/04)

Oh, the picture? That's Wiwaxia corrugata, one of the mysteriously unrelated fossils found in the Burgess Shale. It's not as cool as Anomalocaris, but it looks pretty badass for something that's basically a big limpet.