I have decided to go back to friends only. People I know nothing about, with whom I have no common interest, and whose language I barely talk (I mean you russian) , have friended me. As this journal is mainly a costuming journal, I appear sometimes, if not often, in corset, a. k. a. half-naked. If you're a costumer, I don't mind, but if not, I suddenly feel very self-conscious, and the ambiguity of the situation is a problem for me. I don't mind wanderers ; voyeurs, I do.

Feel free to friend me if you're a costumer, no need to ask.

Who's doing it this year ? I've only seen msmcknittington speaking of it so far.

I'm here on the nano site. If you're doing it tell me : I want to add you all as writing buddies and follow your wordcounts :))

And, let's be geeks : what writing-software are you using ? I'm under Scrivener (only for Mac), and I'm absolutely in love !

My parents are offering me a travel for my 30th birthday, I choose the destination. Budget is less than 700 euros, so I wave good bye to Tokyo. Problem is that apparently, I should probably wave good bye to New York too : hôtels are too darn expensive !

Crap.

"The world's biggest atom-smasher could be jinxed by a future force to protect the world, scientists say /

SCIENTISTS claim the giant atom-smashing Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is being jinxed from the future to save the world.

In a bizarre sci-fi theory, Danish physicist Dr Holger Bech Nielsen and Dr Masao Ninomiya from Japan claim the LHC startup has been delayed due to nature trying to prevent it from finding the elusive Higgs boson, or "God particle".

They say their maths proves that nature will "ripple backward through time" to stop the LHC before it can create the God particle, like a time traveller who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.

“One could even almost say that we have a model for God,” Dr Nielsen says in an unpublished essay.

“He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them.”

"While it is a paradox to go back in time and kill your grandfather, physicists agree there is no paradox if you go back in time and save him from being hit by a bus," Dannis Overbye wrote in the New York Times.

"In the case of the Higgs and the collider, it is as if something is going back in time to keep the universe from being hit by a bus."

“It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck,” Dr Nielsen told the New York Times.

European science agency CERN designed the world's biggest particle accelerator to shoot beams around a freezing 27km concrete ring underground near Geneva, smashing atoms together in search of the elusive "God particle" which is believed to have been present at the Big Bang.

The multi-billion-dollar machine, built over almost 20 years, was set to launch in late 2008 but broke down after it overheated during a test run.

The relaunch was pushed back to late 2009 as more parts had to be replaced, and CERN was recently scandalised when a LHC scientist was found to have approached al-Qaeda for work.

The LHC - which features in sci-fi plots such as Dan Brown's Angels and Demons and the new TV show FlashForward - has been dubbed a "doomsday device" with claims it will open black holes.

Last year, Professor Brian Cox of Manchester University told the UK Telegraph that LHC scientists had received threatening emails and phone calls demanding that the experiment be halted.

But Prof Cox, ex-keyboardist for 1990's pop group D:REAM, dismissed the hysteria in rock-star style.

"Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a tw--," he said.

The LHC is set to start up again next month."

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=31572981

I've listed my first item on Etsy, a pair of mitts. Not that they haven't been ready for quite a long time now, but as much as I tried, I couldn't manage to make decent pictures of them. I did my best, and the picture are still ugly : bad digicam, bad timer pix. Beurk ! The same goes for the beret I have to take pictures of... Oh my !

You can also constat that I added minimal text : I don't have the seller bravado and I don't feel like writing : "This WONDERFUL fingerless gloves were the ONE piece of garnment you've been waiting for AGES !!!!! They are SO COOL, SO BEAUTIFUL,..." bla bla bla. O the kitsh of selling speeches...

I adore this when I read an american article about a Japanese writer and it makes me believe I and the rest of Europe are located in East Asia.

"Yoko Ogawa, a respected writer in Japan, is just becoming known to Western readers, thanks in large part to scholar Stephen Snyder (...)
Ogawa's introduction to the American literary scene was 2008's "The Diving Pool," a collection of three novellas that were first published in Japan more than 20 years ago."

Only speaking of our little part of japanese Europe, Yoko Ogawa has been translated in french, german, italian, spanish, russian,... and she's been a star -- and I weight my words -- in the french literary world for 15 years now.

You have never been to (insert Wild Wild West trailer voiceover) The West... (end of insertion) if you haven't been exfiltred to the USA...

"Let’s move on, now that we’ve all been made into women by our sheikhs."

Via Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

 

Japan's new first lady draws attention
Miyuki Hatoyama is a free spirit who likes to 'eat the sun' and says she's been to Venus. Oh, and she met Tom Cruise in a former life -- he was Japanese.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and his wife Miyuki, who has drawn attention for her unconventional ways.


By John M. Glionna

September 5, 2009

Reporting from Seoul - She's a quasi political player, an eccentric former entertainer whose intense spirituality is ripe for tabloid fodder. She claims she knew actor Tom Cruise in a former life and once visited the planet Venus in a triangular spaceship.

Miyuki Hatoyama, the wife of newly elected Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, is a free-spirited woman whose views are drawing Western attention since her husband's Democratic Party of Japan swept into power in a historic leadership change last weekend.

The 66-year-old Hatoyama, a former singer-dancer in an all-female theatrical troupe and the ex-wife of a Japanese restaurateur in California, met the new prime minister, now 62, while he was studying engineering at Stanford University.

In Japan, she established herself as a "life composer," or lifestyle consultant, who makes her own clothes, including a dress fashioned from hemp coffee bags. On the campaign trail, she demonstrated a passable Michael Jackson moonwalk.

Despite her recent high profile, few Japanese know much about her. Still, she has been busy.

She has written several books, including "Top of Form Bottom of Form Miyuki Hatoyama's Spiritual Food" and "Miyuki Hatoyama's Have a Nice Time."

And there was a collection of celebrity interviews titled "Amazing Events I Have Encountered" in which Hatoyama discussed an extraterrestrial jaunt she says she took during her first marriage.

"While my body was sleeping, I think my spirit flew on a triangular-shaped UFO to Venus," she said. "It was an extremely beautiful place and was very green."

Her book editor, Shunsuke Tsuchiya, said in an interview with The Times that Hatoyama was misunderstood. He said the incident "happened while she was sleeping. It was just a vivid dream."

Tsuchiya described Hatoyama as a very social and straightforward woman with a wide range of interests, including spirituality.

"She does tend to like spiritual topics. She says things like, 'If you're with me, it won't rain.' She can be misunderstood. When you see what she has said in writing, it might be surprising."

As a guest once on a late-night Japanese TV show, she talked of a desire to make a movie with Tom Cruise, who starred in the 2003 film "The Last Samurai."

"In my former life, I know he was Japanese. I knew him. So when he sees me, I think he'll say, 'It's been a long time.' "

Warning viewers that others might consider them "weird," she advised them to energize themselves each day by pretending to "eat the sun." Closing her eyes, she grasped and ate imaginary pieces from the sky. "Yum, yum, yum," she said. "I get energy from it. My husband also does this."

Koichi Nakano, a political scientist at Sophia University in Tokyo, said people here are used to free-spirited celebrities. "There were some rumors about her eccentric behavior, and she does seem a little unusual for a Japanese woman her age," he said. "I don't think any of this matters as long as it stays clear of issues regarding public policy."

Another Japanese cultural scholar was offended by Western news reports on the new first lady.

"The foreign press always seems to reinforce stereotypes about Japanese women and culture, focusing on extreme examples that are on the periphery," said Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow, a professor of education and women's studies at Toyo Eiwa Women's University in Tokyo and an author on Japanese feminism.

"We know little about her in Japan other than she's a bit older than her husband. I don't think people here care very much about what political wives are like."

She said the Japanese certainly did not invent eccentricity among celebrities. "Didn't Nancy Reagan do seances? Nobody cared about that."

Editor Tsuchiya said that Hatoyama's tenure as first lady won't be boring.

"It'll be fun," he said. "Out of all the prime ministers' wives, she may be the most social one."

In an interview with the Kyodo News, Hatoyama said she felt a kindred spirit with Michelle Obama.

"I think she is so natural and has a kind of sensibility similar to mine," said Hatoyama, who speaks English. "If I can have the chance to meet her, I would look forward to it."

Hatoyama told the Kyodo News that she would know how to keep her husband going as he struggles with a slumping economy and a record unemployment rate.

"I always try to cheer him up by saying, 'It's going to be all right,' " she said.

john.glionna@latimes.com

Special correspondent Yuriko Nagano in Tokyo contributed to this report.


Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

Rudney-Dudley only has 17 hours to live : he doesn't want to grow. Wave him farewell :(

EDIT : between the moment I wrote this and the moment I posted it, R-D grew up ! silly baby !

Millions thanks green_martha for saving the three others. I'm just doomed with my dragons, I guess !