Love In The Asylum

Nothing's Gonna Harm You

2011-04-11T06:38:27Z

Possibly even more entertaining than seeing representations of the internet on television from the mid-nineties: reading art/film theory about the internet from the mid-nineties. Fascinating stuff, but it is really weird to see a vision of the future projected forward from AOL and geocities, and the changes they talk about never happened, or happened in completely different ways. Web 2.0 and the social networking boom must have blown their minds. And I don't know if I'll ever quite be able to grasp what it was like, because this technology grew up with me and I've never entirely lived without it. I don't always like new developments (still not sold on Twitter, even if Jack_Wilshere and Cesc are adorable on it), but it all makes sense to me.

Apologies for muddled extemporizing, it's been that kind of weekend.

Last night I went to see Sweeney Todd - quite a good show, even if several of the actors mistook "faking a British accent" for "mumbling all their lines" and several others mistook "acting" for "shouting." But while I couldn't understand any of the lines in the slower songs, when the leads got to let loose and really chew the scenery they were delightful. "Epiphany" gave me shivers down my spine, it was so well-staged/lit and the actor was so intense. And then on the way home I got Freshman Guy to spill the details about an incident earlier in the week he had hinted about on facebook where he tried to hook up with a guy for anonymous bathroom sex in the history building, but instead ended up sitting on the floor of the bathroom stall hugging this semi-undressed guy and talking him through a sexual identity crisis. Just for the record, I am never touching anything in the history building again.

Today I was reminded why I don't read more literary fiction than I do. Out of the six stories we have to read for tomorrow's class, we had: a woman whose abusive husband murdered their three children, a woman trying to keep her nursing client's daughter from stealing his ashes after he dies of dementia, a man who is literally crucified while his pregnant teenage daughter watches, an old man reliving his divorce and his neighbor's death, and a man who is murdered and dismembered by his coworker so he can't turn him in for killing several other people. Isn't that cheerful and upbeat? Last week's book was all rape, stalking, and child abuse, but at least it had a tiger. I suspect my professors of being in a conspiracy with my uterus to make me overly introspective and melancholy. That seems like a good word for it, melancholy, because it's not an active sadness. Just the vague, misanthropic unhappiness that comes from reading a lot of sad stories at once, some of them uncomfortably personal.

At least Arsenal finally won a match today. And I will watch some cartoons and go to bed and tomorrow there will be entirely less moping, I swear.

comments

This Is Pretty Pointless

2011-02-08T06:35:31Z

Redwall Author Brian Jacques Dies at 71

I saw this news making the rounds this morning, and it's made me surprisingly sad. I mean, everyone has that gateway book, right, the one you read at just the right moment when you are ten or twelve or fifteen or whatever that makes you realize that sci fi and fantasy is what you've been missing in your life. And the Redwall books were that for a lot of people, a lot of people I know even, but they weren't that for me. I only ever read one Brian Jacques book, and I don't remember anything that happened in it, so I guess it didn't make much of an impression.

But. One day in middle school this boy I had never spoken to before sat down on a bench next to me in the courtyard, took out a Redwall book, and started reading poetry to me. Odd, right? But strangely sweet. Nothing came of it - I told him it was pretty poetry, and then the bell rang and we left. I didn't become friends with him, I don't think we ever even talked again. But it's still one of the very few good memories that I have from that time, when I was mostly desperately unhappy. It's hard for me not to think fondly of Redwall, and of Brian Jacques, after that.

comments

In Defense of Fanfiction

2010-05-04T03:27:15Z

So I've been seeing this blog post about fanfiction making the rounds on everybody's flist.

For the record, I've never heard of this woman or her books, although I probably won't go to any great lengths to seek them out now. And I apologize if this isn't all that sense-making, because I've been awake a really long time and my brain is wobbly. But reading everyone's replies to this author has made me think about a few things I wanted to blunder my way through, and what is a blog for if not subjecting people on the internet to my ill-conceived rambling.

( In which I am long-winded )

comments

A Theory of L-Space

2010-04-27T04:08:45Z

I assume most of us here are familiar with the theory of L-Space, that fluctuation in the trousers of space and time that forms around large masses of books and links all the libraries that are, were, and might be together. I would like to propose a minor addendum to that theory.

L-Hole: Hereby defined as a minor quantum event, varying in size from the width of a single paperback to the length of a full shelf, that forms in the vacuum left where the card catalog tells you insistently the book you are looking for should be found, if that book had not ceased to exist, or, one presumes, been checked out already by someone in the other trousers leg. The canny library patron can spot L-Holes by the gaps in the LoC numbers of the surrounding volumes, as well as the steady presence close by of other, less quantum-minded patrons grumbling about people who don't bother to put books back in the right place when they're done with them.

This information has been brought to you by The Department of Where The Hell Did They Put The Kate Chopin???

comments

My Good Deed For The Day

2009-10-26T09:01:12Z

Bradley James and Anton Yelchin vs John Cho and Colin Morgan in a shirtless Ultimate Frisbee match. Best mental image ever: yes/HELL YES?

(...this thought is going to get me through the next 12 hours of paper writing.)

comments

Still Not Useless!

2009-06-30T01:56:26Z

Someday I will learn how to use the bread machine to the point where the top of my loaves doesn't always collapse. Alas, today is not that day. Oh well. The bread I made still tastes damn good, even if it isn't pretty, and it's not like anyone will see it but me. I got sick of making the same three recipes out of the book that came with the machine, so I dipped into the pool of the internet to find some new ones that could be made with my dad's rather limited baking supplies. Ended up with buttermilk bread - simple and easy but so tender and delicious when it finished. I can't believe my dad the ex-chef didn't know that you can improvise buttermilk with regular milk and vinegar. I guess that's why my mom is the baker of the family.

Tomorrow I have an orientation/workshop thing for that jobs thing through the city. I am betting that at least half the people there (presuming people other than me show up because that would be just my luck) are going to be idiot teenagers, and hopefully I will be able to keep from killing anyone for two hours. There may be job interviews afterwards. I sure hope so. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

If I could justify the expense, I would totally buy one of these pony scrub caps. I don't even know what I would wear it for (I suspect it would be useful if I was running or riding a lot or working outside or something), but they are just so cute! I love the geta pattern, and the sushi, and the Japanese calligraphy, and the cupcakes. It's going on my list of hair things I would buy if I weren't poor, along with the ficcare clips and the nice Nightblooming hairsticks.

comments

Possibly I Am Overthinking This

2009-05-01T07:23:12Z

Whoo, first post from my shiny Open Beta paid account on Dreamwidth. I love it. Also, I now have 5 actual invite codes, so if you want one leave a comment with your email and I'll hook you up. First come, first serve!

My necklace broke today during Japanese class, and I'm weirdly upset about it. It's not like it's anything fancy - I think I spent about $15 on it at a fair, and it's just cheap pot metal. It's beaten and scuffed where I caught it on things, played with it, even chewed on it (I have a bad habit of absent-mindedly putting things in my mouth). But, I don't know.

I tend to think that objects and symbols have as much power as we give them - put enough faith and belief into something and it does become an object of power. (This is also why I talk to my computer - I think anything we anthropomorphize long enough does achieve some kind of base-level sentience, even if it's not life as we would think of it) And I've put a lot into this charm. I've worn it more or less continuously (I don't take jewelry off because I tend not to put it back on) for 4 years. It's the receptacle of all the faith I could conjure up through 12 AP exams, my grandfather's brain surgery, my high school graduation - so many important and scary things in my life. At some point, an object becomes significant just through dint of time passed.

And you know, I like having this symbol of my religious identity, as well. I'm pretty low-key about my religion - most of the people who I want to know do, and it isn't anyone's business, really. But I do like that I have this small way of marking myself out. People who know what a pentacle means know what I believe. People who don't have an opening to ask me about it, which gives me the chance to explain what it symbolizes and what I believe in, so maybe there's a few less people in the world who think we worship the devil. Sometimes people compliment me on it, and that's pretty cool. And it's nice to have for myself, a reminder everyday that the Goddess is in my life.

Also, it's weird to reach down to play with it when I'm bored and have there be nothing there.

comments

I Keep My Zombie Survival Guide Close At Hand

2009-04-30T01:51:03Z

Dear self: Now is really, REALLY not the time to reread World War Z. I don't care that it's fascinating. I don't care that we're almost out of new books. You are not reading anything about 9/10ths of humanity being wiped out in an apocalyptic plague. NO.

...if anyone needs me, I'll be barricading the doors and stockpiling drugs and bottled water in the basement. Also looking into getting a shotgun and borrowing my cousin's extra machete.

I spent 6 hours straight on TVTropes last night (it's like a black hole of spare time, I swear), and my list of must read/must watch stuff has ben growing exponentially. I've got a season and a half of Supernatural to catch up on still, and about half a season of SGA (I am picking and choosing my S5 episodes carefully, because I am not interested in the McKay And Keller Show). 2.5 more episodes of Avatar and I'll be done with that. All four seasons of Due South. Four more seasons of Angel and five of Buffy. The Teen Titans cartoon - I watched it on CN when it was coming out, but I missed some big chunks of seasons 3 and 4, and I want to see it all through again now that I'm old enough to get what a creepy perv Slade is (also that Beast Boy and Cyborg are trufax luv). The Justice League cartoon, which I never watched except for the Booster Gold episode. The Legion of Superheroes cartoon, which I never even knew existed and now want to see like burning.

I guess I know what I'll be doing this summer.

There is a good chance of scans later - I got my Cable & Deadpool with Cap! comic this afternoon, and I really want to put it up. Mostly it depends on my being not!lazy enough to move my computer across the room so I can use my scanner. So even odds, I guess.

comments