extraordinary machine

These things can be frustrating and a little frightening even from far away. The BBC is generally a great news outlet, but we didn't hear til this morning because we hadn't turned the TV on last night, and when Scott yelled through 'There's been a metro crash in Washington' and I said 'God, what line?' he didn't know because they don't report details like that over here. But I jumped online to check the DC news stations and make sure people were ok (thank you for checking in phoenixchilde, chavalah, and pearldrop).

Stay safe everyone. Washington and all those families are in my thoughts.

I'm working on a new blog. It'll be ready... soonish. I'm kind of anal about my stylesheets, so I want it to be nice even though I'm mildly lazy and adapting it from someone else's Wordpress theme.

Also, I'm going to Orkney next weekend. I'm terrified of the flight, per usual. But assuming I make it there and back in one piece, there will be pretty pictures in my flickr.

P fucking S: NO LOVE atlantic ocean, for getting between me and another birthday ball.

Also, PPS: I just watched this thing on the BBC about a guy who attempted to kayak from Tasmania to Milford Sound, NZ and drowned 30km from Milford. While he WAS insane and all, he was THISCLOSE. That makes me really sad. What a story.
http://www.andrewmcauley.com/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_McAuley

So people are asking why it's the last issue of Lucy, rightfully. It's a little disappointing, but here's an edited explanation from the letter we sent our contributors.

After much deliberation among the editors, we decided we couldn't give Lucy the time and work it really needs to be great. Our lives are all hectic and we were finding ourselves chained to our computers outside our day jobs. It was making us miserable and bitter, and that's not what Lucy is all about.

Rather than continue sludging away at something we don't have time for (and thus making it unbearable), we decided it would be better to use our free time to do the things we enjoy so much. How else would we ever have something to write about in a magazine?

Lucy, as it now stands, will remain online for at least another year. We're going to renew the domain and archive the site on Lindsay's account with our server. There may be a few days of downtime during the switchover (which will happen at the start of March), but it will all work eventually.

In the meantime, we'll all be working on our own smaller, more manageable projects. I plan to link to our editors' and writers' own blogs and websites from the front page of Lucy once it's in it's new home so people who find it and realize it's no longer active will have something else to go explore. This may take a while to get together, but some of us are already getting new things started.

We really do appreciate everyone's enthusiasm for an idea that, we hope, has not yet seen it's end. We still believe that most womens' publications are abysmal, and we're always searching for better stuff to read.


As for me, I'll be starting a new personal blog to keep track of the things that I've been missing and will now have the time to do (cooking, more cooking, sewing, DIY, travel, etc. And I'll finally be posting my blog/article on australia in installments. It was just too long for the magazine anyway.) Sara is starting an indie entertainment blog, Lindsay does freelance web stuff and wants to do a politics and issues centered blog/site, and AJ still has Stalking with the Stars.

So, you know, it's not like we're not doing ANYTHING. But the logistics of a magazine with contributors from all over and a custom back end were just far too much for us to handle at this point.

So that's that.

www.lucy-mag.com

It's the last issue, people. Love it while you can.

So, in the last month or so, stuff has happened. I got a masters degree, finally extricating myself from a system that made me hate education for the first time since middle school (and even then i didn't really hate it, I was just angsty). I also got a visa, so I don't have to think about the legality of being here for another 2 years. then I got a contract at my job, so I have a salary, a ridiculous amount of paid vacation time, and a pension even. These are all very good things.

Then there was Christmas, which saw me and my kitchen get spoiled rotten. I have a 500-page book on meat now! And a magimix food processor! And a Le Creuset grill pan! And a bunch of other goodies. Is it sad that I'm excited to finally make my own proper curry paste or go buy meat from the butcher with actual knowledge of what I'm asking for? I don't know, and I don't care. It's time for good eatin'.

And tonight, I still have no idea what we;re doing to ring in 2009, but I'm sure it will be good (if the fireworks at the end of the torchlight procession on Monday were any indication, we're in for a treat tonight).

( Here's that year in review meme, too: )

Check out our Holiday mini-issue/update at http://www.lucy-mag.com

Hellooooo!

Go check out the December Lucy at www.lucy-mag.com.

Extra holiday content is on its way in a few weeks as well, so you won't get bored waiting for whatever it is you celebrate.

Pictures from Australia and New Zealand are FINALLY up on my shiny new Flickr pro account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kateamann/collections/72157608598884925/

Go look at them so I can justify paying for it.

(the pro account, not the vacation. That was worth every damn penny)

New issue of Lucy is up! Read it at http://www.lucy-mag.com

Hey guys, check this out and help if you can.

http://www.lucy-mag.com/blogs/editors/a-7-year-old-mystery




Operation Find Don

For Thou Art With Us

Angels in America

You know what's a waste of trees? Visa applications.

44 pages. That's all I'm sayin'.

ANYWAY. Monday night, Liam came to have one last romp in Edinburgh before he goes back to the US for good. Since I once again played editor for his dissertation (I couldn't have screwed up much if he won a bigass prize for the last one I did), I was to be compensated with dinner. And I'm sure most of you will realise that I will not often decline being paid in food rather than cash.

We hit the pub for a drink after I got out of work and he got into town. Doctor's had Summer Lighting on, which is one of my favourite beers, so that was the first score of the night. Then we headed off to The Grain Store in Victoria Street for dinner. HOLY CRAP. You guys. It was SO GOOD.

First of all, I was told to order whatever I wanted, so we got an awesome bottle of Rioja to go along with the fresh homemade bread they brought us. It had rosemary in it! It was crusty outside and cushy inside! the butter was still cold, but I can hardly blame them for that as we were the first customers of the night. The second piece I had was sourdough, and it was just as good. But the wine, my god! It was one of those wines tha makes me wish I knew more about wine so I could describe it. But it was freaking good.

For starters, I had the tuna carpaccio with artichokes and fennel and all sorts of nice little garnishes that I can't remember at the moment becaus eI'm blinded by how good it was even though it was a Monday and you're really not supposed to order fish on Monday. I made a point of mentioning that before we went in, but most of the starters involved fish, so I ordered it anyway. And I'm not disappointed that I did.

Liam had Foie Gras, which I had never tried either. We both concluded it tasted like fancy soft cheese. It's mostly fat after all. Nice though. Had some kind of redcurrant jelly with it.

For the main course, I went with the Scottish wood pigeon with roasted shallot, mash, and some kind of berry compote. YUM. I'm all about trying new meats, so this was well worth it. It was kind of like beefy chicken. Or chickeny beef. Either way, it was nice.

Liam had the pork chop with apples and black pudding. I didn't try the pork, but I did try some of the black pudding, and it was the nicest black pudding I've ever had the pleasure of putting in my mouth.

We even decided dessert was in order, so I got a chocolate terrine, which was obviously amazing. Liam got some sort of apricot thing, mostly because it came with earl grey jelly (that's jello for you americans) and we wanted to see how that would be. It was pretty strange, but good anyway, especially considering I hate earl grey tea.

After all this, we headed back home with happy stomachs and shared some celebratory cava with Scott. Hooray! No more UK higher ed!

Did I mention this restaurant was FUCKING AMAZING? Because it was. I love getting really nice dinners. And the staff was so friendly and down to earth. A lot of times when I go to fairly nice restaurants, I feel quite intimidated because I'm not terribly fancy in terms of how I dress or act, and I don't wish to be. I just want to enjoy my tasty, tasty food without being pretentious or foo foo.

Usually the staff at nice places are nice enough, they're just used to dealing with posh people. but the staff here were super friendly. I mean, Liam is always looking far ore dressed for fanciness than I am, but I was dressed up more than th head waiter guy, and I was just wearing a sweater and pants that weren't jeans. He wasn't sloppy or anything, but that put me at ease with the place for some reason. It was nice.

So yeah. Being paid in food? good. Having to work on this visa app? meh.

Since I realized I haven't posted about anything but new Lucy issues in, oh, the past 6 months, I figured I should spam everyone about my rather uninteresting yet happy life.

In all those months of radio silence, I've finished 2 semesters and a dissertation (handed in about a week ago), which means I will, knock wood, be graduating in December with an MSc in Design and Digital Media and more importantly, will be getting my Tier 1 visa that allows me to stay, and work and all that important shit, in Edinburgh. Which is a damn good thing, because if I get were to be ripped out of my home now, I would not be happy. So the staying here is the number one good thing. The degree, in my mind, is a bit secondary because I kind of hated the course with a firey burning passion and wanted it to die. I met some good people and got an education discount on CS3 design premium along the way though, so it wasn't a complete loss.

This year was the first time I got to experience the Fringe as a punter. Unfortunately I wasn't able to go to as much as I would have liked since I was doing hardcore dissertation work, but I did get to see some good comedy and just generally enjoy the atmosphere (as well as get annoyed like a proper local at some of the stupidity going on) instead of working all the time. Working the Fringe is great and all, but I think I might stick to this 'member of the public' thing for a while. I saw Henry Rollins last week on one of the last days, and DAMN tha man is awesome. Also got to see Bill Bailey, Potted Potter, and various other stuff.

I've been getting my vegetables delivered from a local organic farm every week, which gives me a lot to think about in the kitchen. In addition to all the new recipes I've been making, I've gotten very good at making pasta sauce with nearly anything in it as a way to use up leftover veg. I'm extremely excited about the food portion of our upcoming vacation. I've scoped out all the market opportunities online and in books. We're going to hit up the huge Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne for some fresh stuff as well as the Royal Melbourne Show (yes, I'm going to a huge agricultural show while I'm on holiday. I want to see the animals, dammit!). In sydney I'm DEFINITELY going to the fish market, which is one of the biggest in the world, so we can grab a fresh catch and grill it on one of the public barbeques on the beach. Excited? Yes. In Dunedin (New Zealand), aka Bizarro Edinburgh, I've planned our stay around the fact that we'll be able to hit up the Otago Farmer's Market onthe way out of town so we can bring our fresh new zealand produce groceries to Mt. Cook and have a lovely, inexpensive, awesome feast in a town known for being far too overpriced.

Enough about the food though, I'm going to freaking Australia AND New Zealand. FOR A MONTH. I'm so excited I could pee. The itinerary goes a little something like this: Melbourne for a few days, then driving the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide, stopping along the way in about 4 different places a night each. After a few nights in Adelaide and hopefully some vinyard touring, off to Sydney for a bit then to Brisbane for a week to stay with Scott's family. While we're there we may get to go up to thier beach house for a few days, and we're absolutely going to Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin's zoo) so we can cuddle some koalas and see all the crazy animals. Then to New Zealand for a week where we'll see penguins and the brewery in Dunedin (and look for the mystic portal that surely connects Bizarro Edinburgh with Edinburgh), and then some hiking around Mt. Cook and maybe kyacking to the glaciers. Our last night will be in Christchurch where I intend to go all out and eat the fanciest restaurant dinner full of New Zealand Lamb and local produce and wine. Definitely wine. We even booked a proper hotel for the last night instead of a hostel. Fancy!

Um. So yeah. Kind of can't wait for that. Loads to do in the meantime though.This week, Liam's coming down so we can celebrate the end of UK higher education before he leaves the country.Then there's job searching, working, revamping Lucy, cleaning the house. Our kitchen and living room are nearly done aside from a few furniture purchases and lighting changes. Next we're going to build the office in the boxroom, but we have to see about fixing a possible leak in the roof first. Booo. We are getting a new front door though, which we desperately need.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Hooray life!

Hey everyone, go check out the September issue of Lucy! We've got loads of great writing and some new blogs to boot. Enjoy!

The July issue of Lucy Magazine is now live. Check it out, tell your friends!

Go check out Lucy Magazine!

http://www.lucy-mag.com/

I'm going to split up what's been going on by category, or else I may never remember it all for the purposes of an LJ entry.

School: It's the last week of classes, which mostly means presentations of group projects. We went today. It was kind of crazy, but people had fun at least, and there were cookies. My other group is about to turn in our website, which I've designed a kickass flash interface for, and I'm actually really proud of it. I managed to learn a lot about actionscript in working out all the bugs (and damn there were a lot). And I think I finally understand how classes work now too, so that's really good. Over the 3 week 'spring break' there's a lot of work to be done, including finalizing plans for my dissertation project, but it will be nice to just be able to work on shit and not worry about going to scheduled classes.

Work: The University Website is hiring me for at least a few more weeks and possibly months, which is great because the people I work with are pretty cool and the job's not bad for a temporary sort of job. And it's adding to my Australia/New Zealand fund at a nice rate.

Home: Scott and I are forever working ont he flat, but we recently finished up the paint and the trim and the floors int he living room, so we're amassing furniture now. Including an enormous TV and a real dining table, so it feels a lot more like home. We just have to get rid of all the old stuff so we have some space. And I just got the most awesome sewing machine for my birthday, so I can start being crafty on top of all the cooking I do. Things are going well aside from that. Mostly we just hang around. We went to York two weeks ago for my birthday, and that was a nice escape, but being home is something we like to do. In may, I'm throwing a Eurovision Song Contest party, and I'm pretty damn excited about that. It'll be the first party we have with a finished living room.

Magazine: We're hoping to launch lucy magazine in late April. I've got some awesome people working on it with me, so I'm pretty excited. The work should pick up after this week since classes will be over and I'll have a bit more of a fluid schedule to work with. Keep an eye on http://www.lucy-mag.com. And if there's anything you've always wanted to see in a women's mag, let me know.

Vacation plans: We're on track for Oz/NZ in September/October. I've found a bunch of awesome sites that help you find work exchanges so you can help out on a farm for a few hours a day in exchange for a room and sometimes food. I'm really excited about the possibility of working on a dairy farm or a sheep farm or even just an organic veg farm or a vineyard and learning stuff and meeting some locals. It will be a good way to spend part of our really long vacation. Aside from that, the current plan is flying into Melbourne, driving the ocean road to Adelaide, flying to Brisbane, then to New Zealand (probably the south island), then back to Sydney for a few days before heading home.

Life: is good? Yeah. Pretty much. I'm sure I forgot things, but I've been so busy lately that this is a small chunk of what's been going on in my very crowded, very jumbled brain. Just so you all know, I'm still alive and stuff.

PS Motown music makes me so happy.

I haven't written anything here in ages.

I've had no time lately. School is eating my life and I'm not even really enjoying it. I like learning flash and stuff, but I hate all the bullshit that comes with this program. I miss WAC! I miss awesome professors who actually know who I am and give two shits if I'm learning or not! I've been spoiled, perhaps, but dammit, it was worth every penny.

I've been really bummed lately about missing my SECOND Alumni Birthday Ball, along with everything else I seem to be missing. I love being here and I don't want to live in the US, but sometimes it's really difficult to deal with the fact that this means I have to miss weddings and baby showers and parties and other events that everyone else is getting to go to. I really miss people.

I'm trying to get this magazine I want to do started, but every time I think about it, I remember all the shit that's due for my masters degree, so it's really slow going. Everyone who's in on it is so enthusiastic about it though, which really makes me want to get it off the ground, and soon. I just don't think it will make it online until around April. I guess that's all right. I wish I could do it as my dissertation, but I doubt that's the kind of thing they're looking for.

I'm working for the university website, which is pretty good. It's nice to be in an environment where people get shit done again. I've been thinking about what the hell i might want to do when I'm finally done with school, and I still have no idea. I'd love to work for Chambers again or another publisher. I hate thinking about what I actually want to do though, because it makes me fear once again that I picked the wrong masters program. I really should have tried to get into graphic design at ECA. I think they would have taken me, even without an art school degree.

Oh well. Hindsight 20/20 and all that crap.

Outside of school, things are pretty good. I've been getting more and more into cooking because after dealing with other peoples' crap all day, it really relaxes me and makes me happy. I wish I had time to write about it in my food blog, but I've decided to put any extra energy i have into planning the magazine, so I guess that's on the back burner. Big surprise. Our kitchen is pretty much done now and we're looking into doing the floors finally. I think once we have finished living room floors, the place will feel much, much more finished.

I've been swimming once a week, and as soon as classes are done and I'm just working on my dissertation, I'm going to take some yoga or something. I just feel like I need to be healthier. I've been paying a lot of attention to what I cook(and I don't do diets, I just eat healthy), but I need some regular exercise to go with it so I don't feel like a lump after doing all my computery work all day.

Scott is taking me to York for a weekend as my birthday present, and I'll even get to see Michele while I'm there, which will be awesome. Our anniversary is in March which is more happiness. Generally I just have the best boyfriend ever.

So that's what's up in a nutshell.

I started the year with the most awful cold I've had in a long, long time. That went away. A few days later, I got a stomach bug. Out of nowhere. I was actually worried I got e. coli again because the symptoms were frighteningly similar at the start, but I seem to be feeling a bit better after the second day so I'm hoping it's one of those 1-3 day things. The really shitty part was, today was the first day of my other two classes for the semester (the first day of the one other class was Tuesday, so I got to go to that). I had to miss them because I could barely sit up this morning without ridiculously overheating and passing out. (Seriously, I ended up lying on the floor of my bathroom for 5 minutes this morning, which is a feat considering there's no space for a small child to lie down in there, let alone giant me). I'm really not happy about missing class. I HATE missing class. I don't even like when OTHER people miss class, so it wasn't a happy thing. Mike attempted to set up a streaming feed of the class on iChat for me, but it wasn't working properly, so I just had to give up and go back to sleep.

But now I seem to be feeling a bit better. At least, I can sit up for over an hour without feeling like death and I can eat a bit more than I could yesterday. This is good. I really hate when food becomes my enemy because I love it so much. When I'm so sick I can't even stand the thought of some of my favourite foods, it's a serious problem.

Despite being completely useless all day, I managed to get a job! I applied for this temporary 6 week admin assistant position for the university website last week when I was looking at the career services site, and the guy called me today and asked me to come in monday. Sweet! It's only for a little while, which is ok really because then I don't have to dread getting bored of it (I think it's mostly data entry). And it's £7 an hour, which is great.

In the meantime, I guess I'll just be taking it easy for another weekend to get all my strength back. Hopefully my body's got all the sickness out of its system for quite a while. I want to be healthy in the new year and I'm not even getting a chance! Although the irony is I've probably lost 5 pounds in the process...

I woke up this morning with a Crappy. Ass. Cold.

And it didn't start in my sinuses like it usually does. Nope. Straight to throat and chest. And two days before Hogmanay, no less. I REALLY wanted to go do the Torchlight Procession tonight, but I just felt like such ass and I didn't think standing out in the cold holding a flaming stick was a good plan. So we just had to listen to the bangs of the fireworks and imagine the burning viking ship from indoors. Great timing, immune system, REALLY.

I'm currently sitting pretty in my pajamas with a steaming mug of hot whiskey though, so, I guess that's ok.

I didn't even manage to enjoy grocery shopping today because I felt like going back to bed. But I did it anyway and then we went to get tiles from the big B&Q out of town. I'll tell you right now, carrying 300 tiles home via 2 buses and a bit of walking is not a happy thing. That shit is heavy. But it's one more thing we've got to complete the kitchen. And we finally ordered a new microwave. REJOICE! Plus, this week, witht he help of my new enormous stewpot, I'm going to make a proper full-size batch of mushroom risotto so we'll have leftovers for ages and ages. And then I'm making an equally enormous pot of vegetable soup. Hells. Yeah.

I forgot to mention in my last post that Scott and I have decided we're doing Australia and New Zealand this year. It's a big ol' black hole for money, but so very, very worth it. Although it probably means I won't be able to go to the states at all. It's a hard decision to make, but in the end, I can't keep spending all my money on going somewhere I've already been. So Australia and New Zealand it is. For 4 weeks! Probably in October. Sweet. I just have to find another job now.

New years eve, I'm going to play skittles in the pub with some school folk and then it's off to the street party. I'm sure this cold will be raging by then, but I don't care. I want to have fun! And see the Red Hot Chili Pipers! That's right. I said Pipers. As in Bag. None of this Leon Jackson X Factor shit either. I can't believe they had to sully the whole thing with that crap. Hopefully it will pull people away from the stuff I want to see more though. Really though, as long as the weather's good, I'll be happy.

Christmas was, as ever, quite good. Once again I got far more than I deserved. But I did cook an awesome Christmas dinner, so I feel I've paid back my good fortune in part. Loads of good stuff came my way, including a Tefal Jamie Oliver pro series stewpot (sooooo preeeettttyyy), a microplane and spring loaded tongs, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for Wii, a vocab builder game for my DS, a Shaun the Sheep DVD box set (YAY), some books and warm things and chocolates and soapy things, the backpack I wanted for my computer, and more good stuff. I also ordered the Radiohead Discbox for myself and I adopted a doggie through the Dogs Trust since I can't afford to have my own. They're an awesome orginisation. They take care of every dog they get in and they won't put any dog down if it's healthy, even if no one wants to adopt it. They just take care of it and love it for its whole life if they have to. Someday when I have the means, I'll be getting my dog from one of their rehoming centres.

So anyway, that was Christmas. My food was pretty awesome. We took a walk at night, but it's a shame we waited that long because it was gorgeous all day and the minute we went out, it started raining. Oh well.

Yesterday we went to see I Am Legend. Now, I love Will Smith, so when I heard about this movie, I obviously wanted to see it. I read the book first because thehefner recommended it, and he obviously knows a lot more about movies than I do. I loved the book. I loved the darkness of the message. It's kind of like the fall of humanity as we know it, but as a natural order. At some point it's inevitable, but it's a hard thing to wrap one's head around. Robert Neville didn't really manage to til the end, and even then it was just an uncanny concept. Not to mention it all took place in the 50s, so there seems to be an innocence about it that no movie today could (or perhaps, should attempt to) reproduce.

That being said, I was hoping they would at least sort of stay true to the story...
( Spoilers lurk behind. )