liv | Reading

Leave a comment if you want to be on my filter for Angels of the Silences. If you don't have access to my locked entries, I'm probably happy to grant it. Angels is my novel in progress where four sisters, three of whom are nephilim, have to try to stop the apocalypse; I'm taking a lot of story elements from Supernatural and doing them in what I hope is an intersectional feminist manner. To start with, one of my protagonists is a biracial gynosexual genderqueer woman.

Here is the first post on that filter for after any of you who opt in get told you've been added.

elliemurasaki

My final grades are in for community college! I am graduating with a 3.03 GPA! I was expecting upper 2s.

cafeshree

I've really become addicted to The Amazing Race. Mostly I don't care who wins, though the more they whine and complain the less I like them. I enjoy seeing the different parts of the world.

Had dinner last night with a friend and it was fun. She's had some tough times with her aging father but things have been working out so she's feeling better.

In between books again. Finished The English Teacher by Lily King for book group. It was ok. The writing was good, I felt the emotional tension, but something was off, and I'm still trying to figure it out. I get why Vida felt the way she did and why but I still didn't like her much and I don't know why and that bothers me.

Also finished Nothing Daunted by Dorothy Wickenden. Interesting, though sometimes too much extraneous info, felt a bit like padding the story, but it was informative and it brought these young women to life.

I've been slowly reading Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, and while I like it while I'm reading, when I'm not I don't think about it.

I think right now I'll alternate between Restoration by Rose Tremain, Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman.

I'm going to go to Amsterdam, and I think I'll stop at the Hague to see the Escher Museum, but I don't know if I want to go to Delft or Haarlem. Then I'm going to go to Belgium, I want to do a tour of some WW1 spots and I'd like to tour Battle of the Bulge areas, because my grandfather fought there. I'm not sure how much time will be involved in all that and I'd like to end up in Paris for a couple of days. Decisions. But it's fun to research and figure out.

lethargic_man

It always narks me when I hear (for example) people talking about their time on Shnat. Shnat (שְׁנַת) is in the construct form; it means "year of". Year of what? Either provide the following word, or just say שָׁנָה "year".

I'm doubly narked now that I've discovered an example of this sort of language abuse in the Bible:

Psalms 16:2–3 תהילים טז ב–ג

You have said to the Lord, you are my Lord: my goodness extends not to you, but to the holy ones that are on the earth, and to the mighty of, in whom is all my delight. אָמַרְתְּ לַה׳ אֲדֹנָי אָתָּה טוֹבָתִי בַּל־עָלֶיךָ׃ לִקְדוֹשִׁים אֲשֶׁר־בָּאָרֶץ הֵמָּה וְאַדִּירֵי כָּל־חֶפְצִי־בָם׃

Psalms 16:2–3	תהילים טז ב–ג
You have said to the Lord, you are my Lord: my goodness extends not to you, but to the holy ones that are on the earth, and to the mighty of, in whom is all my delight.	אָמַרְתְּ לַה׳ אֲדֹנָי אָתָּה טוֹבָתִי בַּל־עָלֶיךָ׃ לִקְדוֹשִׁים אֲשֶׁר־בָּאָרֶץ הֵמָּה וְאַדִּירֵי כָּל־חֶפְצִי־בָם׃

What kind of shoddy Hebrew is this? And how the hell did it get into the Bible? Where was King David's copyeditor at the time? Can we decanonise this, please, until it's fixed?

(Actually, I can think of plenty equivalents in English, adjectives whose accompanying noun has been dropped, for example <racks brain> "commercial", short for "commercial break"; it's just that there I'm used to it and it doesn't irk me.)

Crossposts: http://lethargic-man.livejournal.com/440560.html

boxofdelights

There is someone who sometimes goes to Wiscon that I don't want to interact with. We have lots of friends in common, but this is not a problem: when they join a conversational group that I'm in, I leave. However. Last Wiscon, every time this person entered a party room or the consuite when I was already there, they immediately joined the conversational group that I was in. I don't know whether this was on purpose. I might just always have been talking to the most interesting people in the room. But if it was on purpose, it's a problem. I suppose I should talk to them about it, but (1) I don't want to interact with them; (2) if it was on purpose, I don't see any good outcome; (3) if it wasn't on purpose, I think a response of, "Now that you've pointed it out, I'll avoid it when it doesn't inconvenience me," is a million times less likely than, "Now that you've pointed it out, I will do this on purpose to teach you that you don't get to control who I talk to."

Advice?

Crossposts: http://boxofdelights.livejournal.com/217162.html

lethargic_man

The Samaritan Torah continues its harmonisation of Exodus–Numbers with Deuteronomy by inserting Deuteronomy 1:6-8 after Num. 10:10, only as direct rather than reported speech:

The Lord said to Moses, "You have dwelt long enough in this mount: Turn and journey until you come to the Amorites' hill country, and all its neighbouring places in the Aravah, in the hills, and in the valley, in the ?south, and on the seashore, to the land of the Canaanites, and to the Lebanon, as far as the Great River, the River Euphrates. See, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which I swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them." וַיְדַבֵּר ה׳ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה לֵּאמֹר׃ רַב־לָכֶם שֶׁבֶת בָּהָר הַזֶּה׃ פְּנוּ וּסְעוּ לָכֶם וּבֹאוּ הַר הָאֱמֹרִי וְאֶל־כָּל־שְׁכֵנָיו בָּעֲרָבָה בָהָר וּבַשְּׁפֵלָה וּבַנּגף וּבְחוֹף הַיָּם אֶרֶץ הַכְּנַעֲנִי וְהַלְּבָנוֹן עַד־הַנָּהָר הַגָּדֹל נְהַר־פְּרָת׃ רְאוּ נָתַתִּי לִפְנֵיכֶם אֶת־הָאָרֶץ בֹּאוּ וּרְשׁוּ אֶת־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּעְתִּי לַאֲבֹתֵיכֶם לְאַבְרָהָם לְיִצְחָק וּלְיַעֲקֹב לָתֵת לָהֶם וּלְזַרְעָם אַחֲרֵיהֶם׃

Similarly Deut 1:20-23 is inserted before Num. 13:1. The interesting thing here is that the former is the passage in Deuteronomy which attributes the desire to send spies through the land to the people, and the latter that in Leviticus which attributes it to Divine command! Evidently the Samaritan Torah is seeking to reconcile the two by turning the latter into Divine sanction on the behaviour which the people have requested and Moses already approved: the insert ends, and the original text from Leviticus with God giving orders starts, after "The matter appeared good to Moses", based on the first half of Deut. 1:23 (but not the second half, in which Moses is already putting the plan into action).

The Samaritan text also introduces the passage from Deut. 1:27-33, about the people complaining about the spies' report, to the appropriate place in the story, between Num. 13:33 and 14:1; and Deut 1:42 after Num. 14:40; and lots more passages, I can't be bothered to annotate all of them.

Samaritan Torah notes Jewish learning notes index

Crossposts: http://lethargic-man.livejournal.com/440074.html

rachelmanija

For what must be my fifth assignment to write an assessment and treatment plan for a fictional character, I am now diagnosing and treating one of the heroes of my upcoming novel.

Crossposts: http://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/1106592.html

rmc28

I got a new watch today. I haven't had a working watch since December: I had one dead-battery rotary, and one working-but-back-falling off digital. I finally got enough grip to remember to take them both with me on an errand into town on Wednesday, and confirmed that it would basically cost as much to repair either of them as it would to get a new one.

Since December, I have found it really frustrating not being able to flick a quick glance at my wrist to tell the time, but having to drag out my phone from a pocket or bag. The ridiculous relief when I got my new! shiny! watch! on my wrist today was overwhelming - five months' pent-up frustration I think.

Anyway, I vented a bit of my excitement on twitter, and my friend asked for a "bad internet photo of it on your wrist" so I obliged, and decided it would do as a new icon too.

Today has also featured a family expedition into town:

Watching The Gruffalo's Child at Cambridge Arts Theatre.
Buying an Angry Birds hat on impulse for Charles
Lunch at Pizza Express for the four of us. We got two children's meals and Nico ate between a quarter and a third of his and then requested a feed.
Shopping for new shoes and new non-school clothes for Charles.
Shopping for shallow plates for Nicholas to eat from, as he'd done well with the shallow bowl in the restaurant.

Nico helpfully slept through all of the shopping in my sling, and woke up only when I sat down at home again. Since then he has been toddling industriously around the house, amicably torturing the cat (who is too old or too tolerant to run away) and repeatedly stealing my phone and/or the tv remote control. He's definitely a toddler now, not a baby.

Some phone-photos from today behind the cut:

( Grainy cuteness! )

dsgood

Thursday May 16, 2013. One effect of Minnesota legalizing same-sex marriages:
Email from Steeple People Thrift Store: "Congratulations to all newly engaged couples! Our special window features wedding dresses and gear for everyone."

***Submitted "All You've Ever Dreamed Of" to another market.

***From Twitter:
US Reality Check ‏@USRealityCheck

Report: World's Lone Non-Telepathic Individual Still Completely Unaware: NEW YORK—According to a report... http://bit.ly/10Tavb8 to #US

(The URL links to an Onion article. Satire; in reality, there are at least nineteen non-telepaths.)

***ACA (Adult Children [of alcoholic and otherwise dysfunctional families] Anonymous) meeting.

The section of the church we generally use was filled with stuff for Saturday's rummage sale (part of the Linden Hills neighborhood sale.) I saw something I wanted which had a price on it. Fifty cents; I had a roll of pennies with me...I took the thing, replaced it with the roll of pennies and a note of explanation.

Somewhat later, a couple of church members brought supplies for Saturday morning's pancake breakfast into the kitchen. I picked up the money and note, gave them to the church people with an explanation.

And suggested that next year, they give attendees of groups which meet in the church an opportunity to buy early.

***On my way home, changing buses in Downtown, I saw pedicabs.

Whereaboooouts Minneapolis, Baja Manitoba
Crossposts: http://dsgood.livejournal.com/1221268.html

elliemurasaki

( earlier days )

Day Twenty-One: Favorite female character screwed over by canon

Anna was going to have Castiel's plotline, I understand. Instead she got sidelined and flambeed.

( later days )

elliemurasaki

21 Days of Dreamwidth Meme

19. Any questions from the audience?

elliemurasaki

The

crowdfunding Creative Jam is going on today and tomorrow! Leave prompts. Lots of prompts. Answer prompts if you feel inspired.

maevele

my life is actually a series of very odd blessings right now. I can't say much else, but it is sincerely good.

Crossposts: http://maevele.livejournal.com/564503.html

kaberett

Here is a paper entitled Compassionate Mind Training for People with High Shame and Self-Criticism: Overview and Pilot Study of a Group Therapy Approach, which I think I probably came across by way of

staranise. It is good. Here is related training material.

eumelia

I'm sick. Please forgive any mishaps and incoherence.

I turned 28 this week, hurray for me!

I'm currently using my mother's guest account on her desktop because my laptop finally bit the dust. The screen had been kind of wonky the past few months, but now her network card is dead and it's like she's in a coma.

Right, yes, her. Ursula the laptop served me very well these past four or so years.

Ugh, I'm finding it hard to concentrate, forgive me. Sore throat.

I have much to tell, really I do, but the words are stuck. Been blocked for a while now.

Maybe later this week. I hope.

Blah, fever.

Crossposts: http://eumelia.livejournal.com/615907.html

legionseagle

Day One Favourite Lead Female Character
Day Two: Favorite supporting female character
Day Three: A female character you hated but grew to love
Day Four: A female character you relate to
Day Five: Favorite female character on a male-driven show
Day Six: Favorite female-driven show
Day Seven: A female character that needs more screen time
Day Eight: Favorite female character in a comedy show
Day Nine: Favorite female character in a drama show
Day Ten: Favorite female character in a scifi/supernatural show
Day Eleven: Favorite female character in a children’s show
Day Twelve: Favorite female character in a movie
Day Thirteen: Favorite female character in a book
Day Fourteen: Favorite older female character
Day Fifteen: Favorite female character growth arc
Day Sixteen: Favorite mother character
Day Seventeen: Favorite warrior female character
Day Eighteen: Favorite non-warrior female character
Day Nineteen: Favorite non-human female character
Day Twenty: Favorite female antagonist

Day Twenty-One: Favorite female character screwed over by canon

Well, the appalling treatment of Donna Noble has already been discussed, and that would really be it, were it not for my distinct sense that the longer a series with a prominent female character or characters runs, so does the probability that that character or those characters will be screwed over by canon approach one. (The speed with which this happens is a function of how expensive to produce/high profile the canon in question is.)

It's partly because of people seeing male as the default, so that women exist to do something gendered, not just to do something that needs doing* which usually involves being fridged.

And I think it's partly for the reasons that Starfleet SOPs apparently, as per the latest movie, require weapons specialists to strip to their bras and knickers before turning to business; that even where the are women characters doing interesting things elsewhere in the plot, TPTB have a core audience in mind whose requirements, they believe, need to be serviced too.

So Donna is a favourite, but honestly I do get to feeling that the default condition of all female characters is being screwed over by canon, and that isn't going to change any time soon.

( Read more... )

*(people complaining about sexism in Sherlock don't seem to acknowledge that on this metric a lot of the "background" characters in Sherlock are female: Ella, Miss Wenceslas, the head of the school from which the children are kidnapped, Dr Stapleton, Dr Mortimer, one of the assassins, half the bombing victims, the Professor of astronomy)

oursin

Oliver Burkemann on 'norm policing' against queue jumpers etc vs Lucy Mangan on microaggressions.

Okay, perhaps one could slot people who violate norms into the category of microaggressors?

It is possible that Lucy M has already captured some of this ambivalence:

And, like political correctness, it is both a) a brilliant and fundamentally sound idea that would, if properly practised, result in greater happiness for a greater number of people; and b) capable of quickly leading practitioners down spiralling corridors of guilt, anxiety and negativity that hide the original departure point from view.

And while I rather like her concept of 'microniceties', I regret to say that I am probably not going to notice people who are holding their parting conversation in such a way that they are not blocking the top of the stairway to the egress (something I came across in the course of this week) as much as people who, neglectful of the fact that people might want to get past, do thus hinder the free flow of traffic.

Niceties, perhaps, are about reducing the friction and not negatively snagging one's attention.

I suspect that niceties have to rise above the level of micro to be noticed.

kate_nepveu

I just mailed the Con or Bust T-shirts to the Wiscon hotel (V-neck fitted shirts, back in stock, look for them at the Aqueduct table in the dealers' room!), but somehow I managed to forget just how small the Priority flat-rate boxes are, so my clever plan to prepay my postage for the leftover shirts and have the hotel ship them is foiled.

Are any of you local to Madison or going to be staying at Wiscon until Tuesday for some reason? If so, would you be willing to ship (at most) 2 boxes, about a foot cubed in size, to me? Con or Bust will reimburse you the postage, of course.

Thanks.

randomling

“Gene Roddenberry was really a visionary in the 60s, and used his show as a way to reflect back at society so many topics that really people weren't able to talk about then. The first interracial kiss was on Star Trek, and you have this crew that represents such an amalgam of people coming together for the betterment of humanity. I think he was at heart really an optimist who had true faith in what we're capable of for the good, and it's nice to be a part of something like that.” Zachary Quinto, The Jonathan Ross Show, 4th May 2013

“Star Trek is nearly 50 years old now and it’s been around for so long because I think it offers hope for us as a species. The thing people have always been attracted to (with Star Trek) is the idea that we might live beyond this age of conflict and uncertainty. And it’s not only that, but it’s also the ability to work together and live in a world where everyone is accepted no matter who you are.

The original series with Gene Roddenberry was incredibly progressive. It started barely 20 years after the end of World War II, with a Japanese officer aboard the Enterprise, a black woman in charge of an entire division, and a Russian on board—albeit in subordinate roles, but it was an incredibly progressive move. It offered this utopian idea of cooperation and that’s always going to be something to strive toward until we actually achieve it. In that respect, Star Trek will never go out of fashion.” Simon Pegg

afuna

I have been travelling slowly from Manila to Anchorage over the past two days. Lots of planes, airports, hotel rooms.

I've been enjoying the slow disconnection from everything. I'm not completely disconnected yet: free wifi hotspots are everywhere so I get online in the evenings and while waiting to check in or board...

But I've not been following along or catching up to scrollback or trying too hard to catch anyone :) just... Letting things flow and catching whatever comes my way.

Tomorrow will be completely disconnected (or so I hope) for a week. Wouldn't have believed it five years ago or maybe even two... But I am actually looking forward to this (with a few crucial exceptions where I hope email will tide me over).

yvi

I am here. I fully intend to be back. And I am not actually sure why I haven't been around, because I have been online the whole time. For the past weeks, it's mostly been embarrassment about not having checked Dreamwidth for so long...

So, tell me about what happened the past three months, please? I really want to know. And I will share my news with you all soon. Missed you.

Moooooood embarrassed

monanotlisa

So, Elementary! Eventually, iTunes delivered it – about 24 hours after the episode was aired. Screw you, people. I would qualify the "people" there, only I’m not sure whether Apple are the culprit or CBS just didn’t hand over the ep in time.*

( Elementary 1x22/23 )

* Likewise file under Huh? with regard to this Elementary experience: A middle-aged dude next to me on the sofa at Shutters on the Beach tried to hit on me by grinning excessively and bending forward in a rather...forward manner to ask me what it was that I was watching so intently, whether it was that movie (the name of which I have already forgotten). I had to turn 90 degrees and take my headphones out to answer his question. That said, I was German – read: blunt and unimpressed – enough that he backed off, literally. Did he really expect this young lady would relish the chance to talk to his less than inspiring and much older self? Probably. But while privilege -- read: money and societal status – can get you a lot of things a lot of the time, it can't pry me away from Lucy Liu's freckles and Joan Watson's delightful cases.

Crossposts: http://monanotlisa.livejournal.com/1406221.html

azurelunatic

When I can focus, I focus hard. This can be an asset at work: deep focus tends to mean hella productivity. Deep focus also means that any interrupts are somewhat jarring.

If I'm not focusing, I will notice when someone shows up at my cube. If I am focusing, and I'm dwelling within the Headphones of Oblivion, anything that succeeds in getting my attention will probably also make me startle.

My co-workers always seem chagrined at disturbing me, but that is in fact my job, to be disturbed to do random things, on basically every other day but the 2nd Thursday of the month.

I've been wanting to rig up something, because the best way of getting my attention is visual (even though that can fail if I'm really in the zone). I'd been poking around, but most of the cubicle doorbells I'd seen (no, fingers, not "doorbees") had been too noisy to be neighborly.

Then I was at Fry's the other night looking for a slightly exotic battery, and wandered into the security section, and they had wireless doorbells. One of them lit up. It was inexpensive enough, and claimed its volume was adjustable enough, that I thought it might be worth a try.

Turned out that the volume had two settings, loud and louder. That's all right for a doorbell. I started thinking of how I could fuck up the speaker enough to be cubicle-friendly, then chided myself for not thinking like an engineer. I unscrewed the unit, and discovered to my delight that the speaker wire plugged in. When unplugged, it just blinked.

My cube now has a doorbell button, and the blinking unit is set right below my monitor, where I'll probably see it. I showed it off to the Stage Manager, who has been running around like the proverbial chicken in the past few days. He has been delightedly using it. I'm not sure if I've missed it yet, but I've found myself turning around without really realizing why I just decided to turn around, and then seeing the flashing light out of the corner of my eye, finally coming to my notice.

One of those times, he asked: "Do you have a highlighter color in something ... other than yellow?" and brandished his yellow highlighter with some disdain.

"What color do you want?" I asked, digging through my desk. (The recent ZOMGAAAAAAUGH has resulted in complete confusion on every available surface of my cube except the keyboard, my syrup rack, and Beyoncé Jr.'s place of pride.)

"Any color, really," he said. "It could be pink, or ... what colors do you have?"

I located the packet, under a notebook and three boxes of badge fixin's. "Every color," I said, and whipped it out.

"Those are highlighters?" the Stage Manager said in covetous disbelief, and went into what I can only describe as "ferret shock", fingers twitching towards one marker, then towards another, making little incoherent sounds.

"Or if you want you could borrow the whole packet," I said. It's not that I'm against watching my managers in a state of twitching indecision, but it's unfair to take advantage of a guy who's clearly in no fit condition to make unnecessary decisions.

This was the right answer, as he snagged the packet and ran back off to his office, clearly planning to color-code the ever-living daylights out of next week's schedule.

Moooooood pleased

azurelunatic

Today was a day, all right. It is coming up on the time of an event, and for various reasons it was necessary to make personalized printed-out items. And this, my lovelies, meant -- the mail merge.

Today was not a good day for me vs. the mail merge. ( Read more... )

azurelunatic

In the last 24 hours, I posted the following to Twitter:

Friday, 0101: My fitbit #Fitstats for 5/16/2013: 3,583 steps and 1.5 miles traveled. http://www.fitbit.com/user/23LLYD
Friday, 0231: @nadyne I see the Entries queue is still standing at 3. http://www.dreamwidth.org/support/faqbrowse?faqid=186 has the Common Stuff; xmlrpc failure = lj b0rked, retry
Friday, 0233: http://archiveofourown.org/works/448050/chapters/767262 she blinded me with political science - thingswithteeth - The Avengers Darcy fixes the Avengers' PR. Darcy is a...
Friday, 0235: Maybe Uhura has magnetic implants so her headset doesn't fall out of her ear. Or maybe there's bioglue. Hope it has adequate anti-moisture.
Friday, 0240: @semanticist You can have a lot more fun with materials on two mated inanimate surfaces. But maybe that gecko-foot microvelcro.

( read the other 7 )

Follow me on Twitter.

steorra

( Emetophobes should probably avoid. Discussion, not graphic. )

elliemurasaki

Title: Love Is Such A Crazy Thing
Rating: PG-13
Summary: The homosexual agenda: spend time with family, be treated equally, buy milk. Written for

queer_fest.
Pairings: Sam/Jess, past Sam/Brady.
Warnings: Canonical character death. Sexist language.
Word Count: 1300

( is it love for real? )

ironed_orchid

To celebrate caturday I cleaned the litter boxes and let the kittens explore outside.

( 10 photos of tabby kittens exploring a somewhat neglected courtyard )

dsgood

Happy Birthday (a day early) to dduane!

Whereaboooouts Minneapolis, Baja Manitoba
Crossposts: http://dsgood.livejournal.com/1221044.html

marina

Internet, I spent today 11am-9:30pm studying. STUDYING. Or rather, writing one single paper, which I am FINALLY DONE WITH holy sweet jesus it's 20 pages long and I want to die.

Tomorrow? TOMORROW I AM GOING TO THE BEACH, because goddamn.

Anyway, you know what was awesome today? Elementary happened.

( spoilers for the finale )

Crossposts: http://sabrina-il.livejournal.com/1382167.html

writerlibrarian

35. Boystown 2: Three Nick Nowak Mysteries by Marshall Thornton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A good follow up the initial series of novella. A little darker in tone, the foreshadow of AIDS is present, the 80's vibe is strong and well done. Some actions from the first series of novella come back to haunt Nowak and there is a strong sense of coherence with all three novellas. Definitely will continue to follow up the adventures of Nick Nowak, Chicago private dick.

36. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Almost read by everyone on my flist or on their to read list. I got it last year and I was finally in the mood for it.

Same amazing awe discovering the universe Aaronovitch created as when I first read Liz Williams' Chen series. He has created an alternate London very close to the real thing, the reader can almost walk besides Peter and follow him pursuing leads, meetings deities and doing magic things.

It's entertaining, it has action, magic and a little pinch of wow that makes this a special reading treat.

Not grand literature but good, solid and entertaining literature that built a whole alternative world just below the surface of ours.

I have the second book waiting to be read later this summer.

View all my reviews

Crossposts: http://writerlibrarian.livejournal.com/772725.html

delux_vivens

Silvio Berlusconi's private disco featured not only aspiring showgirls performing striptease acts as sexy nuns and nurses, but one woman dressed up as President Barack Obama and a prominent Milan prosecutor whom the billionaire media mogul has accused of persecuting him, according to the first public sworn testimony by the Moroccan woman at the center of the scandal.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/ruby-testifies-trial-berlusconi-aides

Moooooood staring

delux_vivens

The Other Double Standard: On Humor and Racism in Feminism

i guess black women are supposed to be off somewhere being so "strong" none of this matters, or something.

oursin

Cool Thing I discovered - glancing through an auction catalogue at work and riffling fast through the section on medieval illuminated manuscripts, my eye caught a woman's name and she was the person to whom this particular ms was attributed and A Known Artist. Apparently this was not entirely unknown in ye medievalz: women were making books in the Middle Ages and illuminating them, some in convents and some in family workshops in the secular world. Okay, hit me again with that explanation about the very limited possibilities available to women in The Past...

Annoying thing: someone, in the debate on women TV presenters and ageism, referring to Mary Beard as 'an old woman'. Beard is several years younger than moi, and still in that phase I would consider middle age.

Puffins: not entirely cutesome. In the course of five-yearly survey of puffins in the UK 'The amount of bites and scars [National Trust rangers] are going to have will be interesting." Though I feel the puffins may have a point, as the census involves people reaching into burrows to see if they are a mated pair with an egg.

elf

Did a "nature walk/study" yesterday for a class. I'm supposed to (1) describe it and (2) identify all the living things I saw.

Damn, Tilden Park has a lot of green leafy things at this time of year.

I have successfully identified three birds I saw (chickadee, steller's jay, mallards), identified two more that I only heard and didn't see (because ravens and turkeys are distinctive enough even for me), recognized five plants (thistle, blackberry brambles, eucalyptus trees, scotch broom, ivy) and one bug (mosquito hawk).

Three more bugs to ID (swarm of little flying gnat-ish things, two tiny hopping things I saw on leaves--one green, one red and black); bunch of birds that I heard that I have no chance in hell of naming; bunch of unfinished salad, most of which is probably poisonous.

Also, after my first attempt to use a cellphone to capture visual data, I have gained new appreciation for photographers.

rachelmanija

I finally figured out what this series reminds me of: P. C. Hodgell's Godstalk series. Hodgell has more black comedy and flamboyant worldbuilding, and Hale concentrates much more on weaving a highly intricate story. But both series seem to have evolved from the same roots: bypassing Tolkien's high fantasy tradition in favor of the swords and sorcery of Fritz Lieber, Jack Vance, C. L. Moore, even Robert E. Howard.

It's interesting that while the overall plots and details of the two series have very few points of similarity - the kinship is more one of tone and atmosphere - both have heroes who are avatars of the destructive aspect of a God.

Beyond that, all I can say without spoilers is that this series just gets better and better as it goes along. Book five was particularly packed with holy shit! moments.

Marie, if you're reading this, you would appreciate that the only characters who do stupid things based on sexual desire are reckless, desperate teenagers. The adults generally manage to sensibly resist doing stupid things out of sexual desire, despite extreme temptation. (Homosexuality is banned in large parts of this world.)

( Read more... )

The Holy Road (The Rifter)

Broken Fortress (The Rifter)

Crossposts: http://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/1105991.html

kaberett

This is a screenshot of the "Fee to Pay" page on the Royal Mail website. Titles are obligatory. They offer six options, which are given (in order) as: Mr, Miss, Mrs, Ms, Dr, Sir.

This is a screenshot of the Contact Us form to which you are directed if you tell them that you have a problem with a Redelivery or paying a fee. Again, title is an obligatory field. It offers ten options, which are given (in order) as: Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss, Mx, Dr, Lady, Rev, Lord, Sir.

I. CANNOT. EVEN.