Geek Threat Level: Orange

I always get a bit worried when my various obsessions start crossing over with each other. For example! I was over on the Long Hair boards and there was a thread talking about geeky hairsticks, and now I really want some, like, desperately. I can think of so many different kinds that would be just incredibly, geekily awesome: TARDIS and Dalek sticks! Sticks mounted with 20-sided dice! Sticks with Enterprise or Serenity dangles! I even started trying to work out in my head how I could make comic book hairsticks, a truly challenging problem since most characters don't have emblems that would lend themselves readily to be mounted on the end of a short piece of wood. I was thinking maybe Legion Ring or Lantern Ring dangles, or maybe batarangs/birdarangs? And Tony's arc reactor, sized appropriately, might look kind of cool - so would the Blue Beetle Scarab, and maybe even Steve's shield. Gaaaah my brain make it stop!

I did see some totally awesome steampunky hairsticks on Etsy, that were topped by antique watch gears, but they were sold before I had a chance to seriously consider them, or even snag the picture that was up on the seller's page. Woe is me. They were pretty epic. I've been keeping an eye out in Etsy ever since for similarly wicked cool stuff.

While not doing that, I've been rewatching Angel. I saw the whole series back in high school, because it was on TNT at the same time I got home every day from class, and I of course have a huge and passionate love for anything Joss. And when I saw last week that Andy Hallett had died, well. I loved Lorne so much in that series, and it was terrible to hear, but it did really make me want to see him again. So, rewatching! But now I really want fic. The only problem? I have no idea how to find the kind of fic I want to read, or even if it exists. My normal channels are useless here! I know it sounds weird coming from me, Ms. Batman and Superman are gay for each and the Winchester boys are totally having sex, but I don't really want to read slash! I mean, I ship Angel/Spike, because DUH. But I don't really want to read it. Mostly, I want to read silly cracky gen about Angel being socially awkward and wearing really ugly shirts. And maybe some stuff about their relation to the police that isn't Angel/Kate - like his apartment getting searched and them finding his fridge full of blood and freaking out? Oh, and fic about how every time they go clubbing everyone thinks he's gay. What can I say, it amuses me.

ETA: I bet something like these earrings, reattached to a generic hair stick, would work really well. And I could probably make Cap and Iron Man or Booster and Beetle chibis out of polymer clay. Um. I might have found a summer project?

Oscar and Walt Totally Have A Thing

In a fit of "OMG I must do something besides sit around being a lazy bum!", I went to Wal-Mart thi afternoon to pick up some minor, non-essential things I needed that I couldn't get at Trader Joe's (including scrunchies, a tape measure, nail clippers, and blue duct tape). Well, that was a mistake. Normally when I go to Wal-Mart it's just to get one or two things, and I'm in and out in ten minutes, but this time...it took me awhile to find the things I wanted to get, long enough that my weird store allergies started to kick in majorly. I had to call hanjuuluver  to talk so just I would have something to think about besides how much I wanted to pass out/throw up. Not fun! But I survived, and I got my shopping done, and now I'm home and won't be going back for a good long while.

The only upside to the whole thing was a quite lovely conversation I had with telyanofcelore  on the bus on my way there. It was definitely one of those 'right, this is why I'm an English major, because I am ENORMOUS DORK' moments. It involved a theoretical AU about a celtic rock band composed entirely of Romantic poets - I believe this train of thought started because we agreed Tennyson would have been a much better lyricist than a poet. So he does that. Arthur Hallam, Tennyson's dead gay boyfriend, would be the lead singer. Byron is lead guitar, as if there were any question. Yeats is on bass guitar. Percy Shelley plays the drums, and he always brings his girlfriend Mary to the practices, which everyone bitches about until they find out that she's been secretly writing songs and then they are all impressed. Whitman writes all their music. Oscar Wilde is of course the scathing music critic. BEST AU EVER, Y/Y?

Because of that, today's poem is Yeats. Because Yeats is made of win!

When You Are Old   by WB Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.