burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

This should have been posted last night, but I was too tired when I got home from class to finish it. So all the "todays" &etc. remain as if it were posted Wednesday night.

-----

( gym )

***

Ed Rollins (R) was on CNN AM and said that neither candidate was inspiring, which was what he thinks people want, that it was a lot of Senate floor talk. That sounded exactly accurate to me.

I avoided the liveblogs last night, but I just about hurt myself laughing reading this one [Will Wilkinson]. (I don't know what the "transvestite" line at the beginning is about, and I'm choosing to ignore it. It's a libertarian blogger, so a lot of the economic stuff &etc. may rub my liberal flisters the wrong way. It gets better as it goes along. The timestamps are Central time zone.)

( excerpts )

Daniel Drezner summed up:

In the end, both candidates put forward mainstream internationalist positions on most issues related to national security, stressing the prudent use of military force, working in concert with allies and insisting that America could still be an active force for good in the world.

What was odd was that this hopeful vision of America's role in the world clashed badly with their rhetoric on the global economy. When talk turned to economics, the rest of the world was viewed as a scary, scary place.

***

The power went out shortly before noon (and stayed out for a half an hour).

Ian went and got lunch (tofu stirfry!) and was hanging out by my desk chatting while the power remained out. (It's hard to do much work here without our computers, and we FAs were still gonna wait until about 12:30 to head to lunch in order to miss the student rush.)

I forget how we got on it, but Ian said, "You're not worried about getting electronically outsourced?" I said the amount of person management I do...

Talking about how people are forever asking me where something/someone is, Ian said, "You like it. You could be all passive-aggressive [mimes turning his head down and away as if sitting at a desk avoiding someone] but instead you [demonstrates how I'll perk up and say, "How can I help you?" -- I didn't nitpick that what I actually say is, "Can I help you?"] I've seen you." I said yeah, I totally love being helpful. (I didn't mention that it connects to my being a control-freak, but that might have been implied.)

I said if someone could develop a Marauder's Map, that would be great. Ian asked, "Marauder's Map?" I said yeah, from Harry Potter -- it's a map of Hogwarts, the school, and it'll show you where anyone is on the school grounds, as a dot on the map with their name.
He said he's the only person who's never read one word of Harry Potter. I said my mom read them to my younger brother when they were first coming out in England and I was doing homework on the computer in the other room and got sucked in.
He said, "You're a geek, I know," in this tone of like, "You don't have to defend yourself, it's okay." I said I'll get militantly defensive about other stuff (I didn't specify, but of course Buffy was what immediately came to my mind), but I wasn't getting defensive, just explaining.

[Dude, you can get it as a screensaver!]

***

I used the phrase "marginal utility" at lunch, and MaryAlice said, "You are taking an econ class." She said she recognized the phrase, but she wouldn't have thought of it to use it.

She said something about Chinese buffet night, and I restrained myself from saying, "AT THE CHINESE BUFFET, WATER IS ON THE HOUSE." (ref. this Dinosaur Comics, and musesfool's subsequent tag)

***

How have I not learned to just be proactive ALWAYS when it comes to work stuff? It always works out better that way. Sigh.

***

I got to Rest and Bread early and walked into the church office to make myself useful. Laura Ruth introduced me to Jamie, the new church administrator (I think), and said, "Elizabeth is..." I thought, "I see you searching for a phrase appropriate for public company" -- because when she introduced me to Meck at brunch a few weeks ago, she used the phrase "church whore," among others -- and she ultimately finished her sentence to Jamie with: "resident church whore." I laughed. She continued: "She frequents all the houses of worship up and down the street." (This is an overstatement, because there are at least six distinct faith communities on College Ave. and I'm only affiliated with three of them, but I LOVE that phrasing.)

At one point while we were setting up I said to Laura Ruth, "Am I allowed to ask you how you've been, or would that be too distracting?" She said yes at the moment that would be too distracting -- but the short version is that she's doing great.

Rest and Bread ("Welcoming the Stranger")

In the Welcome, Laura Ruth said, "We know each other some," but that we don't know all parts of each other -- which in light of Sunday at CWM I read as a subtle nod to National Coming Out Day &etc., whether it was intended so or not.

She said when thinking about welcoming the stranger, we have to ask ourselves, "Who is stranger, us or them," which I thought a nice pun.

The Psalm was Psalm 120.

The Sacred Texts were from Deuteronomy ("...love the stranger") and Hebrews ("let mutual love continue ... entertained angels unawares").

Reflection:
Laura Ruth talked about welcoming the stranger. She talked about how encountering strangers brings newness into our lives and that can be disruptive and threatening.
She said that prayer is about curiosity, not control. (I forget exactly how that related, but I liked it.)
She talked about the "entertained angels unawares" thing and said that one way we can react when we encounter the stranger -- even when it's that crazy guy in the park yelling -- is to think, "Maybe it's Jesus" (I thought of that bit in Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies I think it was, where talks about making a conscious effort to just when she takes the dog out for a walk to see Jesus in the face of every single person she encounters -- or maybe it's just the first person she encounters? but I think it's everyone). She said that Jesus is pure holiness, . I have issue with this because thanks to Old Testament classes and stuff, I can't help thinking of "holy" as "whole," and we are (as she said) broken. [By the time service was over, I had forgotten about probing about this -- and I couldn't stay too long anyway, as I had class -- so I'll be emailing her about this.]

(In other news, Laura Ruth made me an official, computer print out, clip-on, nametag.)

***

Today's mail included:
* my voter registration confirmation (though "I Vote You Vote - a project of the non-partisan American Democracy Institute" says, "Sorry. We can't confirm Elizabeth [redacted] is registered to vote in Massachusetts." -- I suspect they're just a little behind)
* a $36.75 refund check from RCN
* my American Red Cross donor card (I'm O Positive!)

***

Yom Kippur began at sunset tonight. If I've hurt you, or you think you've hurt me, please let me know.

( gym )

***

"Urban Ring project is no urban legend"
Okay, I totally thought that was about gangs or something.
Anyway.
I keep waiting for davis_square (or b0st0n) to post something about this.

davis_square does have the news that "Good Time Emporium in Somerville will close its doors on June 30 to make way for an Ikea" with this brilliant comments exchange:
talonvaki: Finally!
When I moved to Somerville in 2000, there was an IKEA "coming fall 2000."

...8 years later...we're finally getting the damn IKEA. Awesome.
nonnihil: They've had to assemble the store using only an allen wrench and a million cubic feet of particleboard; it takes a little while.

Also: I learned that the Massachusetts governor's daughter came out as a lesbian via a diary on dKos* today.  Way to fail, LJ.

*I'm trying to get back into engagement with politics.  Mostly it results in my switching tabs to go read fanfic or something because I'm either overwhelmed or frustrated, but I'm working on it.  I was v. excited to find I could switch the timezone display on dKos.  [Edit: via b0st0n the next day, I learned that she's going to my alma mater.]

***

Got the most recent HU Gazette today.  Front page above the fold is about JKR's speech at Commencement.  I love that they include the correct pronunciation of her surname: it's pronounced ROW-ling, as in "rolling in dough"

I don't see a writeup on fandom_wank, but people have hat-tipped amireal, chopchica, jennem, thebratqueen, and zvi_likes_tv, so you can check them out for details and commentary.  [Apparently there is a bit of a roundup at UnfunnyBusiness.]

Basically, there's a Harry Potter RPG over on IJ which titled itself Kristallnacht.  The premise is exploring what would happen if Grindelwald (who is posited as a Hitler-like figure in the books) hadn't gotten defeated.  Anyway, people protested that using the name of an actual historical event was offensive, and some of the people supporting the Kristallnacht name did not respond well.  (Though they have since changed the name to Hexennacht.)

As the furor was going on, fox1013 made an icon which says: "Things Which Can Reasonably Be Compared To The Holocaust (a list): 1. The Holocaust."  ( Read more... )

Work continues to be busy.

Things that made me happy today included listening to OMWF songs ("Rest in Peace," "Walk Through the Fire," and "Standing") on YouTube.  I am now listening to the bootleg Ally (not to be confused with Allie or Aly) burned for me back when the ep first aired -- which I far prefer to the official one as it actually includes relevant dialogue bits.

( gym )

I made actually dinner for myself tonight.  Winnar.

***

I remember seeing at least one entry on someone else's flist linking to an article about translating Harry Potter into Hebrew, and I was telling my mom about an excerpt from it, but I hadn't actually gotten around to reading it, so I did tonight.  ("When Harry Meets Hebrew")

( the excerpt in which I learned new stuff about connotations of British food )

*

From whedonesque:

Amber Benson's "Death's Daughter". Amber lands a three book deal with Penguin, and this will be her first release.

From the press release: DEATH'S DAUGHTER, the story of a young woman trying to make it as a young urban professional in NYC who slowly comes to realize that her father is actually the Grim Reaper and that she must rescue him after he's kidnapped by unknown forces in order to save her entire family (not to mention the world.

I'm definitely interested.

*

The weather was beautiful today and we ate lunch outside and Eric joined us and we talked tv.

I told him about the adorable pictures of the girl who plays Molly Walker (Adair Tishler) from the Emmys [though IMDb doesn't have this one] and we swapped casting news for the JJ Abrams Star Trek (okay, he already knew mine -- which I of course got from Vik -- but whatever).

He apparently loves Eureka (which makes me laugh, because all I know about it is jennyo talking about how femslashy it is) and is upset that he doesn't have the Sci-Fi channel (he got the first season on DVD).  I live in like the only town in the Boston area that has RCN rather than (as well as?) Comcast.  He says Comcast is buying RCN?

I feel like all the TV starts back up again next week.  [Note to self: catch up on Heroes online comics this weekend.]  And somehow I'm supposed to get enough sleep and also do the readings for my class?  *tries to remember what this felt like last semester*  I'm basically not adding any new shows to my schedule -- so if there are any new shows you think I absolutely must watch, this is the time to convince me.

Monday
HIMYM @ 8:00 [CBS] (I'm lending Eric S2 when it's out 'cause he liked S1 but hasn't seen S2)
Heroes @ 9 [NBC]

Thursday -- taping because of small group
CSI @ 9 [CBS]
WaT @ 10 [CBS]

And, midseason replacement:
Sunday
The Sarah Connor Chronicles @ 9 [FOX]

("Restless" Subject line idea shamelessly stolen from Amy.)

It is Neville Longbottom's birthday, and marginalia is celebrating with fic lists.

Kita writes:

In an interview about the fashion concious set of Madmen, VK talks at length about how he has none at all. And then shares the following:

"When I was in eighth grade, I decided I would dress as a girl for Halloween," he said. "No one recognized me. In fact, I got asked to the homecoming dance."

And then Kita's head esploded.

Thanks to kartheiser_grl for the interview transcript.

maechi informs me that Joss is doing a webcomic (and reminds me that his Runaways arc is ending soon -- but still, does the man ever take a break?).

antheia tells me that the BBC plans to film "Ripper" as a 90-minute TV movie, and ASH is on board.  (S9 comics spoilers in the next item down.)

maechi linked to some articles about The Sarah Connor Chronicles which include a censorship issue which makes me sad.  To quote from the first article:

According to the BBC, scenes in the pilot that include a school shooting (putting young John in jeopardy and setting the stage for the show) are going to be revised due to the recent shootings at Virginia Tech.  Fox Entertainment chairman Peter Liguori said that the scenes would be changed, although he defended their inclusion in the original script.

Liguori said, "This woman is charged with protecting and preparing her son to be the future leader of the resistance.  The one single place a parent has to give up control of their child is school."

jennyo has been posting about Bionic Woman.  maechi links to an an article stating that Isaiah Washington's character will only be a six-episode guest arc.  It still makes me ill that anybody hired him, though.

The daily_deviant "miscegenation" tag debacle has been linked all over now, but I particularly liked minim_calibre's phrasing: "If you still don't think that there are any race issues in fandom, read this and think again."
After you read witchqueen's post, liviapenn has a round-up of other posts.
[I've only read a few posts on this issue so far, and I did read a few defending the mods with arguments which I was sympathetic to, but I am inclined to side with those who are arguing that the term and its usage in d_d are problematic.]

So, who besides my mother and I noticed the Metro headline typo today?  ("Council looks to reign in guerrilla marketing" -- page 2 above-the-fold, IIRC)

I've been in a much better mood recently (today especially), so yay for that.  (I also went to bed ~9:30 last night just because I could.)

I'm thinking buying lunch at work with some regularity may actually be worth it, 'cause it means I get real food.  Yes, laziness is trumping cheapness.

I haven't been tagged for the "your favorite 5 of your own fics" meme (except for antheia tagging "anyone who hasn't done this already") but obviously have been thinking about it.  When scrollgirl did it she said, "My favourites can't help but be the best things I've written," and I immediately thought, "No, [for me] it's totally the self-indulgent ones, regardless of how good they actually are," but when I actually went to look I found myself thinking "Oh I love that idea" about a lot of fics and "That was a well-done fic" about some fics, but not actually feeling in love with any of the fics particularly, which was weird.

In other news, musesfool posted vaguely caper-y fic about Mal and nuns :)

I happened across an lj entry recently and thought there was an e. e. cummings poem about saying "yes," but maybe I'm thinking of "i thank You God for most this amazing," 'cause preliminary Googling is coming up empty.

I learned via the flist that Hermione's Patronus is an otter.  (Somehow this piece of info from OotP didn't stick in my mind at all.)  In looking at Wiki to confirm, I also learned that JKR initially wanted her surname to be "Puckle," meaning a goblin or elf; huh.

***

More casting info on the Grey's Anatomy spinoff:

[Tim] Daly's character is described as "handsome, sincere, like a McDreamy."

It was not clear what character [Paul] Adelstein will play. The breakdown also includes a female psychiatrist and a female fertility specialist.

I am confused as to when McDreamy was "sincere," but I endorse the presence of females in the cast so that there can be f/f fic.

***

I was wikipediaing Tara for a fic and learned:

Joss Whedon originally wanted an actress with a smaller, less voluptuous frame, but Marti Noxon saw the vulnerability in Amber Benson's portrayal of Tara and called her back after her audition[4].

^ Eden, Martin, "Alyson Wonderland", from Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine #15 (UK, December 2000), page 8-14.

I still have serious issues with Noxon's major involvement in bad plotlines of S6, but she wins big points with me for that.

Gee, nothin' gets up in the morning like two lawnmowers right level with your window.

I wrote ~1800 words last night.  Of two different stories.  Both involving Tara.  ♥  And posting some questions to btvsangel_canon I got the following as a comment: "Not Sure What You're Asking For, Or The Correct Answer, But It Sounds Like You're Writing Something Interesting. Can I have A Link To It When It's Done?"  *glees*  [And wow, I hadn't realized quite how many Tara fics I've written.]

Random factoid I learned: Sean Maher was on a Season 1 CSI: Miami episode (1.21) and had a recurrent role in Season 6 Party of Five.  Why is only Season 1 of Party of Five out on DVD?

Also: athene can say "would you like fries with that" in an ancient dead language.

My mom made sock puppets for her pseudo-nephew Murphy's birthday.  Steve Two and Super Steve.  So I've been quoting "The Prom."  The accompanying note is a thing of comic beauty, boss; excerpt: "I'm sort of sad to see them go ... I think my family is relieved. // And yet, nothing brings a smile to the face like having a conversation with a sock.  Okay, so usually they are laughing AT me, but it's still laughter!"

I read my mom b_cavis' The 10 Commandments of Fanfiction (edited slightly, for the mild HP6:HBP 'ship spoiler, for one) and she enjoyed muchly.  (And the word "squee" made me think of you every time.)

Remember that 10 Interests Meme that required you actually count off?  Well some clever/kind soul turned into a programmy whosie so you just plug in your username and it does the work for you.  Mine: ( Behind the cut. )

sexonastick gave me an explanation of why everyone insists that Tom Cruise is omgsogay that actually made sense to me.

An agency found my resume via monster.  Color me unexcited about going in for an interview tomorrow (two months made me le jaded) but I never got around to shoeshopping yesterday, and they're conveniently located right near South Station so I don't even have to trek anywhere.  Another agency called later, and I'm actually psyched about them 'cause they place a lot of editorial assistants, which would be way funner than basic admin.  So I have a morning appointment with them up in Faneuil Hall.  And then I have a 4pm actual job interview out near the Children's Museum.

Also: Today is [was] Wednesday?  When did that happen?

Apparently I missed Green Street rioting in the Quad and not succeeding in getting today called Mountain Day.  Oh, Smith.

The file that I dump stuff I'm not ready to post into LJ yet has decided it's corrupt or something and that it contains no data, and I just realized that it has [had] my Serenity writeup, complete with reactions to various other people's reactions, article excerpts, etc.  I think that's the only major thing I lost, but . . . grr.

This story gives the best explanation I have seen of how James Potter changes from the adolescent we see to the adult we hear about (a disjunction which frustrates me muchly in canon).

I finished reading The Pillow Book. Somebody wants to write me fic slashing her and the Empress, right?  *looks at gishmi1ish*

(Oh, and lilithchilde?  "In Principio" is definitely recommended.)

IM from my brother in conversation: u realize you just capitalized an IM but misused "write"

Ways to make Elizabeth scream:
- Inappropriate use of apostrophes (this includes "their" when you mean "they're")
- Using "drabble" to refer to a short fic rather than a piece of exactly 100 words.
- White/bright text on black/dark background.

Also:
Why are (fan)art websites so difficult to navigate?

ataniell93 has some really interesting thoughtful posts on the Wizarding World JKR has created (spoilers through HBP):
- the ahistoricity of the 'verse
- psychology in the Wizarding World
- possibilities for queer sexuality given the canon [general terms, not specific 'ships]

For less PostSecret more Nick Bantock fandom postcardage, there is fandompostcards.

snarkhunter talks about the Seven Swan Brothers fairy tale and courage (HP) and writes: "I think I like the idea that you don't have to be a rush-into-battle, Weasley-esque Gryffindor to be brave. You can be like Neville, who's quiet and timid and stands up when it really matters. I like the idea of silent strength, and I think in our rush to find strong feminist heroines, we overlook the quiet ones who hold things together."

( copy and pasting a reply to offbalance's post )

( and one more thought )

My dad (who hasn't yet read HBP) sent me a link to this article by a writer he trusts (having not yet read HBP, he also hasn't read the article).  It says a lot of things i've already said, and brings up further points that make a lot of sense.  I don't buy all of them -- some are major, some are incidental -- but it's a very sense-making article.

( one last thing, unrelated to the theme of this entry )