pepper: Pepperpot (Default)
Pepper ([personal profile] pepper) wrote2007-04-23 03:36 pm

(no subject)

Woohoo, meme-age! Because I am skating the crazy highs and lows of PMT, and can't cope with real life at the moment (I love you all! *cries* Everyone hates me! *hides* I want to sleep! *cleans tops of kitchen cupboards*).

Comment:
And I will name you 3 interests from your list, and 3 userpics and you explain them in your own post asking the same of your flisters.


Thanks to [personal profile] rowan_d, (and I'm curious, rowan - which interests in particular do we have in common? edit: duh, just checked your interests, and yeah! *may go put Tennessee Williams on own interest list, actually*), who asked: 

Interests:

look around you

Ah, yes.... Look Around You: spooky British TV series, based on 'Tomorrow's World' and those 1970s Open University programmes - did other countries have something like this? Science programmes, often on TV in the middle of the night, with people in hideous, hideous clothing talking about how in the future we'd all have robot servants. 

Look Around You managed to perfectly copy that uncomfortable, slightly sinister 1970s Britain feel, where everyone is an amateur scientist building a rocket in their shed. (See also Nick Park and the Wallace and Grommet animations - it has a similar fascination for the amateur British inventor.) It has geeky, geeky jokes, and puts a great deal of effort into the tiniest details - you can see their version of the periodic table here. 


tea


Er... I like tea. I'm British. *g* (Okay, I know that's an untrue generalisation - my dad is British and he hates tea - much prefers coffee.) Not too much milk, no sugar (*shudders*). Hate lapsang souchong, I don't care what anyone says, it smells like drains. Like Earl Grey and Darjeeling, but English Breakfast or Assam for preference. Also, as was pointed out by the people of nicecupofteaandasitdown.com, dark (black, dark blue, bottle green) mugs don't work. Because the mug makes the tea look too weak, so the person making it will either make it too strong in an effort to compensate, or make it okay, but it will still look wrong, and the look will disturb the drinker on a subconscious level, making them feel that they have an inferior cup of tea.

I'll stop there.


yoga

Partly my effort to put something a bit more physical on my interests list (although 'yoga' tends to imply 'I don't actually like physical exertion of any kind', even to me). But also real. Last year, I went on a two-week yoga course in India (Kerala - or Trivandrum, to be precise), and it was mind blowing. We went to sleep every night to the sound of the lions in the safari park on the other side of the lake. Got up at 5am, and meditated for an hour in silence, whilst the sun rose and the birds started to sing. Drank hot, sweet, milky, spiced chai. Did 4-5 hours of yoga a day (!). Did our Karma Yoga - mine was sweeping the yoga platform by the lake. Learnt the power of om (seriously, it was marvellous for getting people to shut up and listen, because one person would start it, and it would kind of flood out until the whole group were in sync). Climbed a mountain and spoke to a yogi who lived in a hut halfway up - who gave me various predictions about my life. Walked barefoot in temples. Bathed in a holy waterfall. Did yoga on a beach on the very bottom-most tip of India at dawn, then swam where the 'three oceans' met (Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean).

Honestly, if it sounds amazing, that's because it was - and much more. The smell of jasmine and the feel of rice between my fingers... I really want to go back someday. India was the most amazing place I've ever been. I was floating for weeks when I got back - felt like my brain had caught a later flight.



Ahem. Now, icons. All my icons are belong to me, so they're pretty easy for me to explain:

 
Avenger 2.0. I had a lot of empathy for Felger - I would totally have run and hugged the Colonel, too, in that situation. *g* Or at any given opportunity, admittedly, but particularly then. It's been a very useful all-purpose icon, and I keep meaning to change the font to fit with my more recent ones.



Paradise Lost (duh). And my favourite swearword - because there's something funny and flat about it. That's kind of what I imagine the Colonel was thinking at that moment. Perhaps not that exact word, because it's a bit British, but words to that effect. Also, I loved that big, open field with the yellow flowers (that apparently was a nightmare to film, because they opened at different times, and not for all that long, so set -up was a nightmare for timing), and the blue sky. Pritty. 




Urgo, and one of my grammar icons. The rule is from Strunk & White's Elements Of Style (invaluable book about writing). There were 11 basic rules, of which this is one. A lot of people have said they like these (*does a little dance*). I think Jack is a grammar Nazi, hoorah - who else would correct the use of 'who/whom'? And why didn't Joe smack him? My theory was that Jack's mother was an English teacher who nitpicked his grammar and waged a lifelong war against the Science Department, thus prejudicing her son against scientists. I later discovered that RDA's father is/was an English teacher, so I wasn't far off. *g* Don't like what he's done with his hair here, though. Weirdly perfect. I prefer it messy.

[identity profile] vickyocean.livejournal.com 2007-04-23 05:12 pm (UTC)(link)
*bounces up and down waving hand franticly*

Do me! Do me!

*roles eyes*

As if I don't have tons to do at work today...

Look Around You sounds really fascinating. I'll have to check that out.

That yoga trip to India sounds wonderful. I keep wanting to take yoga. I even bought a mat and stretchy pants. The lessons my gym offers always seem to conflict with my schedule. India is also on my top 5 places to travel to.

ext_3314: Woman writing (Default)

[identity profile] pepper-field.livejournal.com 2007-04-24 08:52 am (UTC)(link)
I love yoga, but I'm totally inconsistent about keeping it up. The two weeks there was great - I learnt so much, enough to be able to do a session without consulting a book or dvd... or I could, last time I did it. Which was ages ago. :(

And India was just amazing. I really want to go back. I didn't see a lot of the world outside the ashram, so I'd like to do that someday. I felt a little uncomfortable with being a (relatively) rich westerner on vacation in someone else's culture - but I didn't feel at all unwelcome. It was just... wow.


Interests: valentina de fontaine, john singer sargent, kimono

And pics:






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[identity profile] rowan-d.livejournal.com 2007-04-23 07:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow, that yoga retreat sounds unbelievably amazing. Wow. I would never survive it LOL, but it would really be a life changing experience. I am so devoted to yoga, even though sometimes my body will let me do it and sometimes it won't. But no form of exercise has ever done as much good for my body without any negative effects. I will never stop doing yoga the rest of my life. I was in dance since I was 3, so I always thought "Oh, it's a lot like yoga, close enough". Nope. Nothing like it.:) I wish so much that I had been into yoga back when I was dancing the most. It would have helped SO much. I can get in better shape with yoga than I ever could have in dance with about 1/64 of the effort or less. It's a completely different approach to movement and exercise.

Also, as was pointed out by the people of nicecupofteaandasitdown.com, dark (black, dark blue, bottle green) mugs don't work. Because the mug makes the tea look too weak, so the person making it will either make it too strong in an effort to compensate, or make it okay, but it will still look wrong, and the look will disturb the drinker on a subconscious level, making them feel that they have an inferior cup of tea.

:D:D:D:D:D When I'm able to stop laughing long enough to speak, I'll tell you I really do love tea also, as well as the sort of "cultural aura" about it, and I'm not even British (and I'm inclined to agree about the mug color...)
ext_3314: Woman writing (Default)

[identity profile] pepper-field.livejournal.com 2007-04-24 09:32 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I wasn't sure I'd survive it at first... but that was mainly the breakfast curry. Oy. *g*

I felt so different by the end of it - just... comfortable. That's what all the stretching is for, I was told: so one can sit still - for meditation. I managed to sit perfectly still with my eyes closed, for one hour, once, during the whole two weeks. Really not easy. The urge to fidget, or to open your eyes and check how much longer you've got, is almost unbearable.

Hee - the one thing that kept me going in India when I just wanted to tell them to take their yoga and stick it up their chakras... was all the tea we were given. *g* The Indian and British tea-drinking habit was about on a par (a cup every two hours or so).

And the mug colour thing - I came across it, and thought 'YES!' It was one of those things you don't realise is bothering you until someone points it out. *g*

[identity profile] aoife-hime.livejournal.com 2007-04-23 08:17 pm (UTC)(link)
This is... really interesting. Very cool 'get to know you' sort of thing. Would you mind terribly doing me too at some point?
ext_3314: Woman writing (Default)

[identity profile] pepper-field.livejournal.com 2007-04-24 09:06 am (UTC)(link)
Of course! *looks at your list of interests* Oooh... You know, after looking at everyone's interest lists, I'm going to have to go add a whole bunch to mine. I'm such a lemming. *g*

(Damn, that reminds me: I must go tell you how much I loved your recent fic.)


Interests:

archery, edward gorey, l'arc~en~ciel






[identity profile] lady-draco2005.livejournal.com 2007-04-24 01:09 pm (UTC)(link)
oh meme love. I am so feeling it right now. *glomps memes*...meme me!!! XD

I love a good cup of tea. I brew leaves. I can't handle tea bags anymore. *ick*
ext_3314: Woman writing (Default)

[identity profile] pepper-field.livejournal.com 2007-04-24 01:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Memes rool. They are a great excuse. *g*

Uff, I like loose leaves, it is much nicer (and makes you feel like you're at some kind of garden party), but I haven't the time or the teapot. :)

Interests:

jimmy the hand, tamora pierce, wolves


Pics (ack! You need more pics! *g*):







[identity profile] lady-draco2005.livejournal.com 2007-04-24 01:55 pm (UTC)(link)
heheheheheh, coz I can't be bothered signing up for a sponsered account...all those ads annoy me
ext_3314: Woman writing (Default)

[identity profile] pepper-field.livejournal.com 2007-04-24 02:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Aaaaah. Fair enough. *g*

[identity profile] crazedturkey.livejournal.com 2007-04-24 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)
ooo! oo!!

meme me :D
ext_3314: Woman writing (Default)

[identity profile] pepper-field.livejournal.com 2007-04-25 07:52 am (UTC)(link)
You don't have any interests listed, darn it. How am I supposed to meme you if you don't fit into an easily-categorisable box? Huh? ;)

(Is 'categorisable' even a word...?)

Okay, so I shall ask about some things I know you have interests in...

Photography, Futurama, and Pineapples and Propriety (or is it called Somerset Sojourn?).

Pics...