Slow, snowy Sunday

[bironic]

Snow, snow, snow, it's snowing! I didn't know it was supposed to snow. What a treat to wake up to. I could get used to this every-weekend storm schedule. Besides, if it's going to be as cold as it was this week, the least it could do is snow.

I am going to make chocolate chip cookies later, darn it. It's a perfect kind of day for baking.

Roasted a chicken for the first time last night. I overcooked it by about ten degrees—should've checked it in the oven even earlier—so the white meat's tough, but it's still good. Crispy, salty skin.

Thing I forgot to say before about Feynman re: SGA: in one video, talking with some envy about a group of botanists who got to go to the country Tuva on the Russian side of outer Mongolia, he said something like, "They went there and counted leaf parts, or whatever it is botanists do," which got a laugh from our viewing audience. Oh, physicists and your charming scientific elitism.

A few classmates/significant others/friends got together at the campus pub on Friday to complain about, and take our minds off, our theses. My classmate A. used to be in the Air Force, and I ask her about it sometimes, because of Sheppard and because I'm curious. (I've told her about Sheppard, and slash, for full disclosure.) Partly on a tangent from talking about Generation Kill -- yes, roga, it's looking likely I'll end up watching -- the group of us got to discussing the differences between officers, enlisted and noncoms; what it's like to serve halfway around the world when you've been trained to kill but don't have anyone to kill; and whether "don't ask, don't tell" would work in a place like a base dance club where sometimes officers can stop being officers for a little while (answer: it wouldn't; people would notice, and remember).

Should be working, blah blah whatever. Maybe I'll get around to it; maybe I'll even force out some writing. Or maybe I'll manage writing of another sort entirely. (Isn't it time for the Porn Battle again?) …Most likely, though, I'll hang around and read, because I'm incurably lazy and coming to terms with it.

How're your weekends going?

Comments

[roga.livejournal.com]

Yay, GK! I can't wait to hear what you think.

It's amazing to the the differences and similarities in officers/enlisted/NCOs relations between different armies. I remember noticing so many similarities - not in SGA, but in well-researched military SGA fics. But the bg difference between us and the US, I think, is that in the US you can have 30-year-old super experienced combat soldiers who are still privates or corporals, commanded by much younger officers, for examples. Here, in most cases, officers will be older and more experienced than the soldiers they command; and if you want to stay in the army past mandatory service, you have to become an officer/NCO. There's (almost) no other way.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Yes -- A. was saying that when she became a lieutenant, she was "commanding" (though she was in intel) people older and more experienced than she was, and relied on them very heavily in the beginning to show her the ropes.

[roga.livejournal.com]

Yup, it's a weird situation. For me, when I came back from Officer School, I got to command a bunch of girls. One of them was my age (well, my year in school, technically older than me), and we'd been drafted together and been in boot camp together and served together until I left for the course, and when I got back suddenly I was in charge, although she had more experience than I did. Another girl also had more experience than me, although she was younger. Thankfully, the rest of the girls really were younger and inexperienced, so I didn't feel too overwhelmed in my new position; and the two experienced girls basically commanded them, while I supervised and did my other duties, so that was good. I would not have dealt well, however, of being in charge of people significantly older than me. Much less in combat situations.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

They should teach you Confidence in Command stuff in officer training too. :)

[bell]

Man, I never heard of Feynman until Friday, and then I was whammied with three mentions-- your post, one of his books in a bookstore, and a friend in chat. (That the bookstore had anything by him was weirdest of all, because their foreign-language selection mostly consists of Harry Potter, Twilight, Gossip Girl novel tie-ins, and macabre mystery novels.) Why so much Feynman in so brief a period??

How're your weekends going?

It's almost over? That's sad. >3 But it's been productive, and it's been fun to poke about lj again.

BTW, I sent you an email a couple of weeks ago; did you get it?

[bironic.livejournal.com]

*sends off embarrassed late reply to said email*

I've been going through a long-term version of what you describe with Feynman (and what's the term for that, anyway? something related to synchronicity?). Growing up, I knew physicists like Einstein or Oppenheimer, and science popularizers like Carl Sagan, but I hadn't heard of Feynman until, like, a year ago. And now he's everywhere, but it's like he's always been there and everyone else knew about him, and I don't know how I made it so long without knowing.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

(Isn't it time for the Porn Battle again?)

I've been stalking tracking oxoniensis' LJ but so far no announcement. :-(

Would you like another prompt that's not about Guitar Hero/Rock Band?

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yes, sure.

I started tracking that tag, too. Checked the dates from last year, but I guess it'll be later this time.

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

House/Wilson, Newfoundland, screeching-in?

Or, something a little saner: House/Wilson, hospital roof

[bironic.livejournal.com]

LOL, where do you find this stuff?

[topaz-eyes.livejournal.com]

I know a few ex-pat Newfoundlanders?

But come on, kissing the codfish! That has to go somewhere! XD

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Hi! We just had a disastrous trip to Target (much yelling on all sides) but otherwise it's been a pretty good weekend.

I am going to spend a few minutes cleaning up the guest room at some point.

:D

[bironic.livejournal.com]

:D :D

Sorry for disastrous Targeting. Hope the rest of the weekend continues smooth.

I'm trying to do a ficlet, but I'm not sure if it's going to turn out to be one of those things that I can picture but not get out in words.