That is all: seriously, all Recommends from here on out should really just be this post over and over again for eternity.
At least until Fat Ladies Underwater and Fat Ladies in Medieval Fantasy come out. Oh please say they'll come out. I'll be good, I promise.
RECOMMENDS! What have you been reading/writing/thinking/coloring lately?
26 comments:
I've been mostly thinking about games in general and Mirror's Edge in particular since I got that about a week ago now.
Mirror's Edge, and looking at stuff online about it, reintroduced me to a position in the gaming community where some people want to make sure no one else can play in singleplayer in ways they don't approve of in spite of the fact that, being singleplayer, it can't actually have an effect on them. So I wrote a post about that, mostly how I don't understand the position at all, called Quicksave, Cheating, and the Sanctity of Singleplayer.
I eventually got around to writing a non-spoiler post about playing Mirror's Edge. I hope to have a post about setting, story and all that spoliery stuff out soon, but haven't finished it yet.
On the Twilight front I wrote a fiction fragment about Jessica standing up to Edward to stop him from pushing Bella, and to a lesser extent herself, around.
On the Left Behind front I wrote a thing responding to the laying on of hands of Rayford Steele while driving, trying to inject a bit of Chloe's perspective into it. (A little bit, there's not much there.) I wrote a thing where I imagined Captain Tribulation (as opposed to Captain Planet), specifically the powers that combine to produce him and his themesong. And finally I wrote what is, hopefully, a significantly better version of the part of Nicolae: Rise of the Antichrist where the protagonists are stopped in their car by soldiers.
Reading Nightmares and Dreamscapes and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. A bit disappointed that I'm actually solving some of the mysteries. N&D is better than I remembered.
I finally saw Casablanca. That was amazingly good. They don't write movies like that anymore. Funny, tense, smart and a strong woman. I'm watching The Greatest Story Ever Told and live-tweeting (asparrow16). my adventures with SwedishJesus and White People in White Robes among White Rocks. These are mirrored at my livejournal (valarltd).
I just finished the rough draft of Hot Delta Nights, an Urban Fantasy romance. DJ Admire is a hard-drinking PI in the best noir style, who lives in her office, hates the whole world and tries not to think about the fact she's pushing forty and not quite as able to run down Nightside troublemakers as she was even five years ago. Then combat mage Bran McKay walks in with news of a demon being raised in Memphis and everything changes. He's fifty, on his last mission before retirment, and the magical leaders are trying to make sure it kills him. He still wears of the scars of the time it almost did, by ripping his face off. DJ and her cousin Jinx and the local combat mages (the outlaw bikers of the magical world) give him the help he needs.
I'm writing a saining/wiccaning for a lovely little girl today, and doing laundry. Also My deep thoughts for the week on fear and faith, do or do not and alternate sexuality interpretations of Joan Baez. (that last sounds grander than it is)
For me, the thing that sells it is that the 'Space' on the title is elongated. That should be a universal -law-.
I'm nowhere near as prolific as Chris. But recently I've been thinking about what I'm going to write for Nanowrimo. I'm thinking, a Sherlock Holmes-style detective short story featuring a mildly jaded med student and the detective- an imperious young lady who cannot help but stand out.
I'm grumbling at the Netflix streaming service for not having things I want to watch - I watched some Claymore last summer when you were reviewing it, decided to pick it up again this week, and found it was no longer available. And their selection of major blockbuster movies less than 10 years old leaves much to be desired.
What I did wind up watching was "Dead Man", which I can recommend to anyone who's interested in watching a weird indie western. It nominally stars Johnny Depp, but he mostly just sits around looking injured and confused while Gary Farmer steals every single scene he's in. It'd be an interesting movie to include if you ever feel like posting on Magical Minorities; Farmer's character was clearly written to mess with viewers' expectations of the Native American Sidekick.
I was going to write a post about the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, from the angle of a republican (that is, opposed to royals - not, er, a member of an extremist right-wing party) but the blogpost ended up also being about my dad.
I took part in the Doctor George Tiller Memorial Blogathon. My blog is Patient First, but all of the blog posts about this amazing and compassionate and incredibly brave man are great.
The Olympics London committee decided that they were going to have two cute little imaginary friends to sell figurines and soft toys and be the LOCOG mascots. Only their idea of "cute" isn't everyone else's. London is to be invaded by monsters out of a Doctor Who episode: shapeless creatures with a single camera-like eye. Some of them are disguised as London bobbies.
A Scottish Parliament MSP, Mary Fee, who is clearly a total comics nerd, proposed a motion of support:
"That the Parliament welcomes the news that the Marvel comic, X-Men, will feature its first same-sex marriage, which will feature Northstar, believed to be the first openly gay comic superhero; understands that, in 1992, Marvel was the first comic publisher to reveal a gay superhero; notes that Northstar is not the first gay character to have had a same-sex marriage in the comic book world, and agrees that same-sex marriage should not be restricted to the world of literature and fantasy."
Inspired by this (and by Green Lantern coming out) I wrote two gay superheroes posts: Equality and Laws and X Wedding.
(Fifteen MSPs of four out of five parties have supported Mary Fee's motion, by the way. I am so proud. Government of nerds by nerds for nerds supports equality!)
Aw, that looks like a fascinating read! I'm thinking, once I have a paycheck to deposit, I'll go buy that. (By the way, I'm a lurker on this blog mostly because I'm a bit shy when it comes to commenting. I often feel others can say it better than me, but I figured I'd try to come out of lurking every once and while in hopes of saying hi and contributing to this lovely community. I just love reading your blog, and wanted to thank you for your wonderfully insightful posts!
As for what I've been writing: I recently wrote a post on disabilities inspired by some of your writing and my discussions with my girlfriend: http://reshapingreality.wordpress.com/2012/06/02/characters-with-disabilities/
I admit, terminology is my weakness, so I went with the terminology my girlfriend uses.
I watched Apocalypse Now! for the first time, and found it to be highly depressing movie. War movies always depress me, for they are so brutal, and I just wish there was a better way - plus some of the more recent wars the US has had (and is having) just seems to be more out of some sort of imperialistic/colonialism tendencies rather than actually helping any country become democratic and "more free." Apocalypse Now!, in my humble opinion, seemed to show just how nonsensical and brutal the Vietnam war in particular was.
Also, as a side note, Netflix has such random selections of movies at times. Many of them I think would have been perfect candidates for a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode... (Anyone ever watch Mystery Science theater? What're your thoughts on it?)
Also, as a side note, Netflix has such random selections of movies at times. Many of them I think would have been perfect candidates for a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode... (Anyone ever watch Mystery Science theater? What're your thoughts on it?)
I once got an MST episode stuck in my head during a university interview and had to keep a straight face when I really just wanted to laugh and giggle and roll around on the floor- which only made me want to giggle more.
Damned robots...
Aw, that looks like a fascinating read!
What, the Fat Ladies in Spaaaaace? It says it's a colouring book. There's generally no reading with colouring books. (Sorry to disappoint.)
It should also be a short story anthology. But coloring book is super-great, too.
Well, the appropriate opinion tohave of MST is "It's Just A Show, It's Just A Show", but the movies and the commentary are hilarious. I've actually watched one that they likely MST'd, and the original movie is funny enough while it was trying to be a Serious Drama.
Sure they do! At least, if not, I can formulate a story as I color! It's still way exciting. So as I color I'll write the story beside it if there is no words used. I used to do that all the time as a kid.
In terms of what I've been writing, I've just started my own blog. I wanted to let our kind hostess know, as she is one of the biggest inspirations I had to start one.
Note: I am the poster who previously was Nathaniel
I ordered a book about the culture and dating of gravesites of Iron Age Karelia, and trying to make sense of it as it's a doctor's thesis and I don't really have any education in archeology, so all the typologies of brooches and chain holders and such are not exactly prior knowledge in the "brooch H/IIb, so this type with this decorative motif" sense. I finished rereading Mockingjay. I'm getting to know my puppy, who is growing fast and is in serious cat love phase. Unfortunately the cats don't love her back. I only spend some weekends at the cat-place so I wonder if they ever will...
I'm trying to find places to look for more infomation about Karelia and lake Ladoga area in general. Does anyone know if there are any publications about textile finds from Staraja Ladoga? Wanting to make a coat from this lovely hand woven wool I have, and I want to get it right.
As much as I approve of and have enjoyed MST3K, there are some movies for which it's just not worth it. The so-bad-it's-good/too-bad-to-watch line is a tricky tightrope to walk.
I have no new blog posts this week, partly because it's now Camp NaNoWriMo time and all my creative force is focused on the superhero-ridden city of Borealis and its political machinations and cape-wearing subcultures. In keeping with the themes of the rest of this thread, the main character is a superheroic woman in a romantic relationship with another woman.
The latter also has a disability, what with having lost half a leg at a young age, meaning that when she runs in competitions she uses a freaking sweet BK prosthesis in the style of Oscar Pistorius. As soon as I settled on the superheroic genre, I knew that ability/disability was going to be an important theme.
Oh hey, I just got a new bookmark to check often.
I watched Apocalypse Now! for the first time, and found it to be highly depressing movie.
I fell asleep during Apocalypse Now. Some time after the French colonial family and the Playmates, and woke up for part of the end sequence, and then passed out again. I woke up with a vague sense that I had had a dream about a long, sinister trip down a river, then remembered it had been a movie.
I am currently reading a lot of historical fiction about Jewish women. I finished "The Dovekeepers", and two of Maggie Anton's "Rashi's Daughters" novels, and "The Work of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz". I'm also reading "The Coffee Trader", which is mostly about men, but takes place in the Portuguese Jewish community of Amsterdam in the seventeenth century, and through one of the characters, offers a really interesting angle about the experience of Converso women that I had never considered before.
I am also Nano Camping my heart out, pounding out a rough draft for the sequel to my fifteenth century Florentine mystery. My FMC has hired the world's most inappropriate wet-nurse, and been summonsed to testify before the archbishop's court (these are not related events, well, not entirely).
And I finished reading "Team of Rivals", which took forever, but was very good.
Oh, one last thing. Someone here, months ago, posted a link to a rather unimpressed deconstruction of "The Hunger Games". Any suggestion as to what that might have been, and where it is? I cannot find it again. The author gave great emphasis to the food-and-economic culture of the first book.
This one?
http://farla.livejournal.com/tag/hunger%20games
You're back!
Hope you're doing well.
I am. :D Very astute of you -- I was going to write a metapost this morning (should be up now), but this was around 3 am when I couldn't sleep and was puttering.
I rather wish I'd fallen asleep for it. It was highly disturbing, and so incredibly long and slow-moving. I mean the plot moved as slowly as that river I swear. I admit, it does a great job of showing the horror of war, but heavens I have no intention of watching it again.
My girlfriend admitted that she fell asleep during it too. Must be pretty common way to watch it. : )
I completely agree. There's a couple my friend and I couldn't bear to continue watching, even with MST3K poking fun at it.
Horribly awful feminist caricatures seems to be pretty common in bad movies I notice - in all the ones MST3K did that my friend and I couldn't stand to finish always had at least one or two really random scenes that held awful representations of feminism - usually painting them as evil men haters that will destroy all men that come near them. This awful, awful trope just never seems to die. :/
That is the one...thanks!
Glad you're back home, Ana. I hope you're recovering fine.
Also, that's an interesting deconstruction. I confess I didn't pick up much of the survival fail, was sort of breezing through. Although I was "bhuh? Iodine? does she do that stuff at home too?" because (hello, tremendous privilege!) I live in a country where water is usually very clean. In the south you wouldn't want to drink from a random brook because runoff from fields and peat industry, but go a little north and there's practically no brook that has bad water at all. So the purifying water is not something that I think of when it comes to forest skills. But I was wondering why Katniss didn't drink the rabbit's blood. Dehydration is bad stuff.
However I'm not sure if Katniss is supposed to be seen as sympathetic character. I was pretty happy about reading about a character who is unlikeable.
Hmm іt аppears likе your website
аte my fiгѕt comment (іt ωas extremely lοng) so І guesѕ I'll just sum it up what I wrote and say, I'm thoroughlу enjoying your blog.
I as wеll аm an asрiring blog blogger
but I'm still new to everything. Do you have any tips and hints for beginner blog writers? I'd genuinеly appreciаte it.
Stop by my ωeb рage - short term loans
Post a Comment