hermionesviolin | Entries tagged with vday

Magpie Girl sent an email today:

Subject: Single? Separated? Partnered?: A Valentine's Blessing

Hello Magpies,

Valentine's Day is like chocolate. It comes in both "sweet" and "bittersweet."

No matter what your Facebook profile says about your relationship status, I have a heart-full of love for you. I wish I could lay my hands on your head and breathe a blessing over you today. Instead, I offer you the words of my mouth, and meditation of my heart, in the form of these recorded blessings.

May they be a kiss on your forehead.

A Blessing for All The Single People
A Blessing for the Recently Separated
A Blessing for Those with Partners

***

I read the Blessing for the Single People first, and the invocation of "Saint Lucy" made me think of the Catie Curtis song "Saint Lucy" which is on my "every song has a you" mix, which made me think of the OTHER Catie Curtis song on that mix -- "The Trouble You Bring" ("I can't get myself to do a thing about / the trouble you bring").

From my notes when I first made the mix:

08. "Saint Lucy" - Catie Curtis
Oh, Saint Lucy
I can't find the place where I need to be
Oh, Saint Lucy
Lend your eyes, to me

[Yes, that last line is kind of creepy. I am choosing to think of the Creature in Pan's Labyrinth, which, okay, isn't necessarily any less creepy...]

10. "The Trouble You Bring" - Catie Curtis
You can say goodbye with an open heart
You'll always love her though it's not smart
You got everything you dreamt of
It doesn't mean you're never tempted
[...]
I can't get myself to do a thing about
the trouble you bring

I'm kind of indifferent to Valentine's Day. I'm not big on institutionalized obligation days, but I don't have particular bitterness around Valentine's Day (though I do think it's problematic that it's become an All About Couples occasion).

yuki_onna has an interesting post reacting to various criticisms of the holiday, focusing particularly on the positive power of ritual, which is something I don't think of all that much. Excerpt:

But here's the thing. This world is a beautiful place, but it is also often dark, and cold, and unfeeling, and life slips by, not because it is short, but because it is so difficult to hold onto. Holidays, rituals, these things demarcate the time. They remind us of the sharpness of pleasure and the nearness of death. They tell us when the sun leaves, and when it comes back. They tell us to dance and they tell us to sleep. They tell us who we are, who we have been since we lived on the savannah and hoped to taste cheetah before we died. I know we're all punk rock rebels, but the paleolithic joy of fucking in the fields and dancing around a fire doesn't go away just because certain of us would like to think we're beyond that. This world needs more holidays, not less. More ritual, the gorgeous, flexible, non-dogmatic kind that isn't about religion but about ecstasy in the sheer humanness of our bodies and souls. More chances to reach out, to sing, to love, to bedeck ourselves in ritual colors and become splendid as the year turns around.

( ... )

This is a great holiday. It's pure physical, sensual pleasure, divorced from any dogma at this point. Saint whatever. Pass the sex and food.

[...]

And more than Geoff--think about it for a second. In the midst of winter, we are encouraged to come together and have sex (let's not be coy.) To escape the snow and ice in each others' bodies. The colors are red and rose and white--the colors of fire in the winter, of blood, of survival even in the barren times. We exchange hearts, the very vital core of our bodies. It is the last holiday before spring, to remind us that the fertile world will come again, with flowers and sweetness and love. Even surrounded by death, by blood on the snow, be it St. Valentine's blood or your own, life will win out. The traditional food is chocolate--which can be preserved through the winter and does not rot, full of sugar and fat which keep our bodies going through lean times. This holiday is as old as time: o world, even in the freezing storm, come together, make love, make children, feast, smile, and know the sun is coming soon.

the_red_shoes linked to PostSecret for Valentine's Day.

The top one is awesome. ( behind the cut )

However, it's one farther down that particularly jumped out at me. ( behind the cut )

I have always been single on Valentine's Day, and I have never been mopey about it, and I refuse to be mopey about it this year.

I am grateful to all the people who have listened to some or all of my emo drama -- particularly Ari, Jonah, Allie, Joe, CHPC-Rachel, mjules, and my mom.

Excerpts from "The 6 Cutest Animals That Can Still Destroy You" by Alex Levinton: ( Read more... )

Well, the morning commute was no big deal (I'd guess about an inch of snowfall and the flakes falling were small, though kinda coarse), but I expect the evening commute to be worse with the whole freezing rain thing. Again, though, I have no expectations. I was glad to hear that Katie agreed with me that she honestly would not have been surprised if she woke up this morning to no snow.

I think a bouquet of black [or some approximation thereto] tulips would be fabulous, but honestly I've been happy with complete non-engagement with this Hallmark holiday.

*

The

femslash_today "love bites" porn battle was up to 3 pages already yesterday [it went live on Sunday], though I was unimpressed by the quality when I skimmed said pages.

There are a huge number of prompts. There are no BSC prompts, and in HP no McGonagall (or Tonks, now that I think of it) prompts. I disapprove.

Some of the prompts are really intriguing, though, and I may snag them for development into fuller ideas later.

Also, Eden in Heroes? Totally hadn't occurred to me until I saw her name in the prompts for that fandom that one could do really interesting stuff given her power. [I am feeling oddly squicky about writing Claire-porn. Though apparently not squicked enough, since I wrote Eden/Claire -- though it turns out I'd misread the prompt, which was actually Eden/Charlie. Oops.]

I also endorse the The "Imperfect Sex Is Not the End of the World" Challenge.

*

Oh, speaking of VDay.

I am frustrated that something that is supposed to empowering etc. for women uses incorrect terminology for girly bits. I'm speaking, of course, of the Vagina Monologues.

To quote Wiki, In common speech, the term "vagina" is often used inaccurately to refer to the vulva or female genitals generally; strictly speaking, the vagina is a specific internal structure and the vulva is the exterior genitalia only.

I know I'm being a prescriptivist, but I like language being precise. I mean, if a perfectly good word already exists, why use a word that doesn't mean that?

This doesn't even touch my discomfort with that weird anthropomorphization of one's girly bits, which also (to my mind) has shades of defining one by one's bits.

*

P.S. All y'alls who dislike LJ's VDay style know you can switch out of Horizon, right? [Yes, I know, some people actually like Horizon and that doesn't mean they should be forced to endure holiday decoration schemes. I am personally anti-pink, but what little I saw before I logged in this morning I actually didn't mind as much as I'd expected to given the outcry.]

Also, why did no one tell me there are new LJ gift options including a ripped-out heart and a black rose? [Oh, it didn't even show up on

news until like 10:30am Pacific today. That would do it.]

Edit: Okay, I approve of the Google Doodle. /edit

*

Looking ahead to other holidays:

Join IHOP to celebrate National Pancake Day (also known as Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday) on Tuesday, February 20, 2007. From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., we'll give you one free short stack (three) of our famous buttermilk pancakes. All we ask is that you consider making a donation to support local children's hospitals through Children's Miracle Network, or other local charities.

[...]

There is a limit of one free short stack per guest. The offer is valid at participating restaurants for dine-in only while supplies last, and is not valid with any other offer, special, coupon or discount.

How do you know which restaurants are participating? 'Cause I was recently reminded that there is an IHOP in Harvard Square. Though I don't really like anyone's pancakes except my mom's sourdough anyway.

8 hours of sleep last night. Not so much happening tonight, huh?
I'm definitely fighting off a cold, but I think I'll win.

~~The AvonWalk commercial or whatever it is~~ The Breast Cancer 3-Day commercial has one bald woman, and Mary Alice commented on how great she looks and she mentioned how Natalie Portman was bald in some role and looked great and I suggested V for Vendetta and she didn't know but IMDb-ing afterward I was right. And I totally knew this thanks to your icon.

At dinner tonight my dad was talking about how hybrids that look funny sell well but hybrid SUVs that look like regular SUVs don't sell at all 'cause so much of the point of getting a hybrid is being able to advertise the fact that one drives a hybrid, and driving and SUV is totally anithetical to that image.

I watched snippets of the Olympic skating with my mom tonight. Including a guy of whom I had seen icons earlier in the week. ( spoilers? for men's skating tonight )

Amazon's having a 4-for-3 promotion on select titles -- though you still have to have specifics in mind or a lot of free time 'cause SFF is 220 pages and Teens is 179. On the bottom of the Teens page? Elmo Loves You (Big Bird's Favorites Brd Bks) (Board book) / by Sarah Albee, Maggie Swanson (Illustrator)

I feel like I should have more anecdotes, but today was a slow day.

Joy, however. Got an e-mail, subject line: The Beauty in the Stones. Body text: "Hey. I just read this and I had to let you know that is was one of the sweetest things I've ever read. // Sorry to bother you."

My cunning plan for V-Day was to just ignore it, but clearly that hasn't happened. [Though I was amused to realize as I walked into work that my all-black outfit could have been construed as a statement on the day. It was honestly just because I had a meeting and think black looks professional; plus I like that outfit.]

"Valentine" by the Get Up Kids [sing365.com lyrics here] came up on random on my WinAmp and I thought I'd share for anyone who's feeling bitter. And then "You Are My Joy" by Reindeer Section [stlyrics.com lyrics here] came up, so I'm sharing that, too, for those who are happily partnered.

Cat, this made me think of you.

Linda's from Arizona and said when she didn't feel like celebrating Valentine's Day she would celebrate Arizona's statehood instead. I meant to e-mail Nao 'cause of that.

2 years; wow.

via

illiterate,

hp_hardcore valentines (and from 2005). Much with the squicky, though I find some of them fabulous.

via

wisdomeagle: a fabulous V-Day card (because of the surprise object of the letter)

Also: linguist valentines (via

sineala)

I realized as the train pulled into my home station that I could have gotten flowers for my mom. My brother sent her an e-card, though. At least one of us wins :)

Eric bought flowers for his mom (had them sent to her work today 'cause she's taking tomorrow off). She called during lunch to thank him and listening to his end of the conversation I was confused 'cause I was like, "I know he doesn't have a girlfriend." Learned afterward it was his mom. Proof he can be sweet sometimes. I joked it was his being nice quota for the month.

One of today's Millionaire questions was about feta cheese and I recalled making the mistake of ordering a Greek salad during one of the NEASC days and I realized that meant it must have been 10th grade I became a vegetarian (I'm always unclear as to whether it was 10th or 11th grade).

Sunny came by and mentioned my tomorrow's computer upgrade -- which I'd been wondering/worrying about because he had said it would take 4-6 hours and hi, my computer is kind of essential to my doing my job. He said 2-3 hours of that was processing that could happen overnight (I think they copy your harddrive and give you a new machine) so he said he could take the computer now (~4pm) and work on it for about an hour and then let it do its thing overnight.

I explained the basics of the situation to Prof.B. and asked if he wanted me to stick around (make copies for his meeting, answer the phone, etc.) or if I could go home early. He asked which I wanted to do, and I said I would rather go home early. He said if that's what I wanted to do I should have just said so in the first place. I countered that I would stay if there was a legitimate reason for me to do so. "Other than the fact that you work here?" Oh, my boss. But he said really I could go home, that I'd been working hard (which was funny 'cause I'd actually done almost nothing all day, but I think he was still thinking about the tie thing -- for which he had thanked me multiple times; I appreciate that he recognizes when he's asking me to do something not really in my job description).

I had to go to Ann Taylor Loft to pick up my clothes, and I needed to go to CVS too, and I'd been hungry all day so I was less than thrilled that I'd be getting home late, but this meant I actually ended up getting my regular train home no rush. Very nice.

There was a big ole pink display at ATL which I would swear wasn't there when I went on Saturday, and CVS of course had a huge section of red boxes of candy. I still kept forgetting Valentine's Day is tomorrow -- am reminded every time I saw somebody carrying a bouquet of flowers. Before we got to Readville, the conductor came on the intercom to remind all the guys that tomorrow is Valentine's Day and to buy gifts if they hadn't yet.

So does the fact that I'm not doing most people's jonoharis mean almost nobody does mine? *sticks tongue out and pouts*

And I'm spacing out, so I'm thinking an early bedtime is of the good.

Yeah, that was Eric. Complaining about the straw-haired ABC announcer, after 5 minutes of reportage on the the Entwistle murders. He loses so bad.

One of the stories I had sort of seen on my way to work. Corner of JFK and South, right across from the Kennedy School. I wondered what had happened to take a chunk out of the corner of the house as I walked past and then noticed dirt on the sidewalk, stepped back and realized it was from tire tracks and oh there was caution tape where there should have been part of a fence.

Yesterday I called him at noon. "Thoughts on lunch?" "No." "Does that mean you're not having lunch or you don't have thoughts on lunch." "I'm not going to lunch. Because I came in late today." "Okay. Should we get you anything?" "No, I had an orange earlier." "Oh-kaay. Well I guess I'm glad you ate something."

So today he shows up at my desk at a quarter to noon and says, "So, lunch." He has 4 slices of pizza (in the takeaway individual boxes). "Well I'm glad to see you'll be eating something today." (Yesterday he had two oranges and a bag of chips.) "They had buffalo chicken today. My favorite. And anything I don't eat I can put in the fridge and have for lunch tomorrow." The real motivation for the early lunch was the fact that his e-mail still wasn't back from the maintenance that was supposed to be done at 10am. This does not bode well for my scheduled maintenance outage tomorrow morning.

wisdomeagle linked to this MSN article on bad V-day gifts. (I seem to recall seeing something similar in the Metro or something recently.) The first item is red roses -- on the argument that they're cliche and impersonal. Dude, I have gotten roses once in my life and they were yellow roses for my 16th birthday. I would love to get a bouquet of red roses from a romantic partner. I feel like that item in particular is aimed at people who have been doing the dating thing for a long time. And what if your honey loves roses? (Alternatively: "order up a monochromatic bouquet of various blooms in your honey’s favorite color"? what if your honey loves multi-color?) Really I think the article could be summed up by, "Get/do something thoughtful that reflects the individuality of the person you love," which, um, should be obvious?

ABC News was all "Boston is one of the best cities for dating," and I laughed when "one of the top ten" turned out to be "rounding out the list" (i.e., tenth out of ten).

Dude, I've barely even looked at

metafandom in a long time, but there has been plenty of discussion on the flist alone.

the Matilda/Miss Honey relationship in the Matilda movie (comments include discussion of the book, HP house sorting, and the Dahl oeuvre)
in defense of textual ambiguity (examples from BtVS primarily)
Why the aversion to ficcing canonically gay characters in het relationships? [Which is a discussion I have seen so many times before, but it still comes under the category of recent discussion on my flist. And hey, it certainly didn't stop me from chiming in like a bajillion times. Plus, these debates are recurrent because not everybody has in fact already had/seen them a million times before. Though sometimes I wish there existed compilations of the most insightful points on all sides for any given issue -- complete with links to the full discussions for anything quoted, of course. Oh, and the examples are from BtVS primarily.]

Yes, it is much easier for me to engage with other people's essays and conversations than it is for me to get my own essays formulated.

And damn, I owe people icon drabbles, don't I?

And yes Cat, I will do tv reports before I go to bed.

It's possible that my time would be better spent copying down interesting passages from stuff i've read recently for my own future reference since all of like 5 people comment on my LJ, but hey, the journal's really for me first and foremost -- though obviously not entirely since this does get edited with the awareness of audience and all that.

( Wednesday-Saturday )

lasultrix says, "There's no such language as Irish Gaelic. There's a language called Scots Gaelic, but the branch of the Gaelic languages spoken in Ireland is just called Irish."

(Last year she gave out superhero valentines, and of course mine had a note stating that they're all gay.)

Also from today:
-one from p00rn
-a luffly homemade one from Anna with those glittery things you can buy packages of -- stars, leaves, etc.
-a Shrek 2 one from Min Ji (it has the Antonio Banderas Puss in Boots -- hott on its own -- saying "You Slay Me, Valentine" which wins -- plus she drew in a little volcano in the message part, 'cause of the conversation we had last time i wore my Escape from Pompeii t-shirt)
-a mopey animal one from Ms. Anti-Valentine's-Day
-one from Felicia (your "fixated" friend) with two fluffy puppies saying "We Make a Cute Pair, Valentine"

And some of them came with candy. And there was chocolate to partake of at work. (All the cards and chocolate, i feel like Halloween -- collecting all this loot.)

And i haven't even checked my campus mail box yet -- though likely all that will contain is a card from my Grandma. Which is fine, really.

I never really get bitter about V-Day though i've never been partnered ever nevermind on V-Day. It just gets subsumed under my general discomfort with official occasions dictating that this is when you tell/show people that you care. I do like the outpourings of love and chocolate, but then there's the awkwardness of feeling that i'm expected to reciprocate, and that way lies much angst.

Emma looked omghot. Dark makeup, all black clothes (including skirt and stockings), hair swept up. Then it turned out she'd just put on cashmere 'cause she was cold, and the intended top was her red corset, which i had forgotten how guh! it is.

Other than papercuts and closing a file drawer on my thumb, work was aright. Focus sends 2 Thank You mints with each item you order and apparently they're also doing a First Friday thing wherein you get free samples of stuff when you place your order on the first Friday of each month, so we got gel pens -- 3 of them, 'cause apparently each ordered item gets its own accompanying freebie.

Last week Stacey e-mailed us student assistants thanking us for filling out our timesheets well, and i e-mailed back with a joke referencing a brief exchange we'd had earlier. I hadn't seen her since and worried she'd forgotten the exchange by the time she read the e-mail and would look askance at me, but actually when she saw me today one of the first things she said was that she had read it at home and laughed and she thanked me.

During my work shift, a couple people told me it was snowing out. When i left, i walked outside into a cloudy, near-sunset, precipitating world that was actually kinda depressing, but then i was actually in the snow and much happy.

And what would V-Day be without flowers. Aprile got hot dark red roses. And AJ got white and purple tulips. They reminded me of crocuses, which are my favorite flowers, though i had mad love for Aprile's roses.

Gillian has the best V-Day story:
While working at a public library, a creepy old guy asks her to help him find Canterbury Tales, compliments her on her research skills, proceeds to read her a bawdy portion and leeringly remarks, "Exciting stuff, isn't it?"

Second best story comes from my Ossian Scandal seminar reading. My retelling of the story of Duchommar and Morna:
DUCHOMMAR: Morna, you are beautiful. I love you.
MORNA: Duchommar, you're dark and kinda scary.
DUCHOMMAR: Morna, I have killed 3 deer. Just for you. Because I love you like whoa.
Morna: But Duchommar, you are dark and gloomy. Plus, I love Cadmor. In fact, I am going to sit down right here and wait for him. So there.
DUCHOMMAR: Muahaha! You will be waiting a long time, for I met him and fought him and slew him. Look, his blood is on my sword. (Clearly I never read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.) I will build a great tomb for him and lo, you shall love me, for I have a strong, um, arm.
MORNA: Cut down in his prime? Oh the tragedy! Duchommar, you are gloomy indeed, and your arm is cruel to me. Give me that sword, for I love even the blood of Cadmor.
DUCHOMMAR: [gives her the sword]
MORNA: [stabs him]
DUCHOMMAR: Woe, you have killed me. Give my body to Moinie the maid for she loved me and will build me a great tomb so that many will know of me. The sword feels cold, please take it out of me.
MORNA: [moves toward him]
DUCHOMMAR: [stabs her]
MORNA: [falls, grabbing a nearby stone as she falls and placing it between them so that his blood won't mingle with hers]
THE END

It's actually a pretty decent story; it's just fun to sap all the poetics out of it. And i so love the end.

I was so ill-prepared for class tonight (teaching Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily") but it was okay. And it was still snowing, which made me happy. (It seems to have since turned to rain, but at the time the world was still white.)

After i got back i went up to Emma's room for the movie marathon. I came in at the end of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and there was much junk food consumption. The we watched The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which only Emma had seen before. I enjoyed. (Most well-adjusted child evar. I want to have chlidren so i can fuck them up in a healthy way like that. Except that i don't want children.) "Twas amusing how ABBA's "Mamma Mia" at the end turned into a stereo performance as we all started singing along. Ditto Vanessa Williams' "Save the Best for Last" even moreso. (According to IMDb trivia: "The drag-queen in the barber's chair during the closing credits, is actually costume designer Tim Chappel.")

We never did get around to watching Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill 'cause we broke out the fondue and the (Heart of Darkness) wine. The wine kind of saturated the air of Emma's room, which i felt really bad about 'cause she's allergic, but it was okay.

It was 2002 vintage, so connoisseurs like Kate were underwhelmed, but i think it's good wine. I was pleased, since the voodoo doll and hot box aren't quite worth all the money i spent -- though i enjoy that i basically paid for it with the service charges accumulated from buying alcohol for people this year.

This week is kind of hellish, so i don't think i'll be doing any drinking for a while, but i definitely wanna share, so get in touch if you wanna try some.

The night continued into discussion of movies, general goofiness, nonsexual molestation of Cat, and other goodness.

Aw, and Gillian said she'd be honoured if i hit on her :)

Yup, good V-Day.

And because

immortalavalamp told me to, a meme:

If you woke up and I was in bed with you, what would be your first thought?

I'm not going to screen comments, but if you feel compelled to post anonymously, i promise not to track you down.

P.S. Reminder: The Naked I: Monologues from Beyond the Binary at UMass tonight (Tuesday): Student Union Ballroom at 7pm, free admission (6pm B43 bus gets you to UMass at 6:35)

Friday it warmed up and melted the snow from the previous night. Saturday night, Sunday really as it was after midnight, we had a little snow -- nice coating on the cars and suchlike. There was still a little bit left when i left for church, but it was already feeling springlike, and all was melted by the time i came back. It feels far too early to have the winter/spring back-and-forth. Emma has a nice poetic entry loving the snow. The snow still makes me happy, and i'm glad i'm not the only one.

Prelude Meditation
Lead us not, then, into temptation of playing God with anyone; of judging people as though we had God’s right to judge them; of playing games with people as though they existed for the purpose of giving us pleasure and satisfaction.
-Bishop John B. Coburn, Deliver Us From Evil

Call to Worship
This is the season of Lent, a season to remember the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
A season to remember that to follow Christ is to take up out cross and be a servant to others.
A season to remember Jesus' question: "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?"
A season to ask ourselves how we, like Simon the Cyrene, might help to bear The Cross.
A season to ask ourselves how we, like Pilate and Caiphas and the crowd, continue to nail Christ to the Cross.
A season to ask ourselves what we, like the woman with the fine ointment, have to offer.
A season to watch and wait with Christ; that we may have the courage in our own hour of testing.
A season to proclaim with Mary Magdalene, that Christ is not dead but alive!

I like church a lot better when we don't talk about the President of the United States as being evil.

First Churches is doing something of an inverse Advent, though -- extinguishing one light from a candelabra each Sunday through Lent (three purple candles on each side of one taller white candle).

Why did i volunteer to present on Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"? I'd forgotten how tough that story is. I love and adore Joe and owe him my firstborn or something -- well okay not really, since it's only pretend teaching.

Having finished Jane Eyre obscenely late last night, i struggled through Out of the Silent Planet today (Sunday).

Of the trilogy, my father wrote: "The speculation on what other planets are like turns out to be very wrong, which shouldn't get in the way of someone nurtured on Buffy, but which did bother a younger science geek (guilty as charged, your honor)."

I argued that you have to play by the rules of your universe, so setting a story in this universe and getting things wrong would bother me. Once they landed i was full willing to have described for me whatever kind of world Lewis fancied, but the bizareness of the journey bothered me (not to mention the incessant descriptions, but that's a complaint of a different nature).

[Oh, dork moment: a scene in Out of the Silent Planet reminded me of The Lord of the Rings because i'd recently watched a fanvid.]

Monday Inklings class is cancelled due to professor illness, necessitating Friday class. Grr. I have a paper due Friday, which i would rather work on Friday than on Monday. Yeah, yeah, life is pain.

I buy way more alcohol for ~~underage first years~~ other people than i do for myself. Grey Goose has really nice packaging (and a time-sensitive splash page! though the website has no further content).

I need to scan the outside cover of the Loves Me Not package box 'cause it rawks. And the voodoo doll is cool. And the eraser says ERASE in neat lettering withe the latter letters partially erased and the soap says PURIFY with bubbles around the word and the chocolate wrapper says BINGE with a bite mark. (shoddy image of the package from their website)

The quote on the inside of the Loves Me package lid worries me:

Submit to love without thinking,
      as the sun rose this morning recklessly
extinguishing our star-candle minds.
     -Rumi

(Searching for the full quote online, i found an interesting Unitarian sermon entitled "The Long Work of Rising." [PDF, HTML])

Though really, they're both kinda weird. The Loves Me Not is:

      I fled. O witches, O misery, O hate.
My treasure was left in your care...
      I have withered within me all human hope.
With the silent leap of a sullen beast,
      I have downed and strangled every joy.
-Arthur Rimbaud

The piece this is excerpted from is called A Season in Hell. Googling also got me a BtVS mid-S5 fanfic that uses the passage as an epigraph :).

Bringing Up Baby [two-disc special edition] and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead are both soon to be released on DVD.

"You don't have the devil in you; I don't care what you write on the web." -Meredith, to me

I think i said "I love you" to Emma at least a half a dozen times on Friday. So many people i'm gonna miss when i graduate.

She and i were talking about porn and Felicia and Liz started talking about volunteer work, in an attempt to move the conversation in a more wholesome direction. Then Emma and i brought the remains of tea back to the kitchen (something we weren't personally obligated to do but which needed to get done) and on our way back Emma said we were good and virtuous, which was true, and so ironic given the immediately preceding.

"You should focus on quality," says Dana Zemack, who teaches classes about chocolate through her business the Tasty Show. "You don't want to give someone a box of chocolate the size of a bed, because they'll get lost in an ocean of chocolate and feel overwhelmed and not very sexy. You want to give them something small, so they're able to savor each individual piece."
-from "Sweet Surrender" by Christopher Muther (The Boston Globe, Calendar, Feb. 10-16, 2005; page 6)

Who needs to feel sexy when you've got a box of chocolate the size of a bed?

Watched High Fidelity. (I wasn't interested in the story enough to sit through the Nick Hornby book, but i was willing to sit through the movie.) Reminded me a lot of Empire Records.

Okay, so things like making About a Boy into a movie make me cranky (screenplays and novels are entirely different mediums, does no one have an original ideal in zir head anymore? etc.), but making a fucked-up queer version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland i wholeheartedly endorse.

Bonny Doon has Loves Me / Loves Me Not packages i was so tempted to get except that they're over $25 each.
Loves Me: milk chocolate, massage oil, mood candle and matches, Framboise raspberry liqueur
Loves Me Not: bittersweet chocolate, voodoo doll, soap and eraser, Madiran Heart of Darkness

[Okay, hours later i'm still really tempted to purchase the Loves Me Not package for the Madiran Heart of Darkness -- and the voodoo doll.]

[Poll #436728]

Cat was telling me about Songs Inspired by Literature. I'm tempted to purchase, though i know almost none of the original texts.

Dude, i had better get a damned good fic for the Ethan Ficathon ‘cause i am displeased with my assignment.

"Fascinating how many of the questions provoked by the portrayal of Aslan echo debates in theodicy!" -prof who has been described as "pleasant, but she's a bit of a nutter"

Doing some Googling for ideas about presenting on Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" gets me some bizarro shite.

My father says "The semi-colon is the Rodney Dangerfield of punctuation." ["I don't get no respect."]

Emma, reading "But general rules often undergo exceptions, even as in grammar, so also in morals" (from Libellus de Auferibilitate Papae ab Ecclesia, which she's reading in parts and in translation for a history class) writes, "so I'm assuming that somewhere out there, there is the moral equivalent of how to use a comma"

Jane Eyre is, on the whole, a more enjoyable book than Tess of the d'Urbervilles, but i am well and truly glad to be done with it. And oh, damn, look at the time -- reader response, what? (Oh, the joys of cohabitation and how it keeps me from my work. Second violin pride! Now i want my violin and sheet music.) I think i'm skipping the Rare Book Room lecture at St. Johns on the Bible tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon, though, which gives me more time. (I still have to read and respond to Out of the Silent Planet [cosmic space trilogy: book 1] and prepare discussion questions for "A Rose for Emily," nevermind my seminar work.)

Our readings in weeks 1-4 all in one way or another raise the question of what we mean by a piece of "authentic folklore" and what authenticity means. Write an essay of about 4 pages that tests a particular piece [or type or kind or tradition or whatever] of folklore against your own ideas about authenticity.

I'm doing mine on the Grimms, of course. We're not required to do reading outside of the assignments for class, but of course i got out from Neilson an obscene number of books i'm never going to have the time to read.

I've already started thinking about what i wanna do my final (15-20 pages) seminar paper on. I'm thinking something about sexuality/sexualization in contemporary retellings (Angela Carter, Anne Sexton, Francesca Lia Block).

Tuesday, February 15
5 p.m., Graham Hall, Hillyer, Brown Fine Arts Center
Anthony Cromwell Hill, grand nephew of Otelia Cromwell, shows his film Return to Glory in conjunction with the exhibition Augustus Saint-Gaudens: Master of American Sculpture. The film focuses on the Saint-Gaudens memorial honoring the 54th Massachusetts regiment, the first African-American regiment in the Civil War.

This photo shoot should do it for me but doesn't. I like some of the other photoshoots, though.

( icons and an angel/demon quiz )

Cat and i are two of the few people (still) excited about the snow. I got up this morning to a world blanketed in white and was much pleased. The snow is all plowed now and glittery and i continue to be pleased.

At RCFOS tonight we talked about Hell and i devil's advocated some theological standpoints i don't actually believe in and also talked about the wonderful imagery i love from my mother of encountering the Divine after death and being overwhelmed by the light and truth and undeniability of it (hence the "every knee shall bend, every tongue confess..."), though having recently reread the Narnia Chronicles, i thought of the scene with the Dwarves (whom, we hear repeatedly, are for themselves) at the end of The Last Battle ("You see," said Aslan. "They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out), which tied in with the piece from The Problem of Pain that Emily had read at the beginning about being so self-oriented. The only Hell i'm willing to accept as existing is eternal separation from God, and Meg was talking about how in Dante's Inferno the punishment fits the crime in that the people are doing for eternity the things they chose time after time in life and that in Purgatorio people are also punished, but whereas the people in Hell never cry out to God, the people in Purgatory are constantly talking to God, so i guess i could see people choosing to reject God, thinking that that's what they truly want, and that's their punishment (that whole "be careful what you wish for: you just might get it" thing). I just can't see the Loving Creator God in whom i believe condemning people to Hell for eternity, but there's also the whole issue of free will, and God can't force you to do anything. Though of course God loves us so much that every time we reject God it hurts God, and this connects with my early thought about Hell-as-separation-from-God and Jesus as being God reaching out to humanity, an effort to bridge* that gap and connecting that with the whole "I am the Way and the Truth and the Light and no one comes to the Father but through me."

*( from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader )

In Inklings class today, the prof asked us what surprised us in the the Carpenter reading we did, and everytime someone would mention something, she would write it on the board and then talk about it for 10 minutes. This got real painful real fast, so i'm hoping the rest of the semester we primarily have actual discussion. Also, i have no classes or anything on Fridays. The prof's already talking about how we might not get to all of the material, and we're already falling behind, so i would really rather have class on Fridays (the class is officially MWF, but we're only gonna be meeting MW).

AJ was out sick, so i got a lot of reading done at work. Chatted with Stacey for a while, which was good 'cause we've barely spoken recently.

Have i mentioned recently that i love my advisor? 'Cause i do.

doyle_sb4 says, "I've seen this meme all over." Clearly we have different circles, as this was the first i saw it.

1. Comment with any subject that you would like me to rant on.
2. Watch my journal for your rant.
3. Post this in your own journal, so that you may rant for others.

Being me, i just laughed at the idea of people actually asking me to rant about something, though it did remind me that i should make a list of all the manifestos i wanna write.

scrollgirl says that "

minim_calibre has a wonderful thread going on over here about why we like the female characters we like (any fandom) and why we're not so hot on others." and that "Her post springs off from

thete1's post on why we identify with female characters, or don't"

I should probably participate, but since off the top of my head Willow, Tara, and Dawn are all mini-essays in and of themselves, i'm thinking not.

fabu posted recently with her list of "Ten Things I'd Like to See More of [in fanfic]" which i think is such a good concept -- likely far more productive of getting the fic you want than listing things you're sick of seeing in fanfic (which is not say that it isn't good and useful to point out things that are bad).

doyle_sb4 has a poll about "There needs to be more Buffy/... fic"

damned_colonial wants to hear from males who read slashfic.

"Someday, I Will Copyedit The Great American Novel"

"Return to Oz" (Scissor Sisters) has been intermittently stuck in my head recently (thanks to

wolfling and

mogigraphia's vid), and apparently my mother's birthday (tomorrow) is LiveJournal Rabbit Hole Day.

( and this entry's random quiz )

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Elizabeth (the delinquent, ecumenical)

May 2025

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burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

when faced with my demons I clothe them and feed them

Entries tagged with vday

"Single? Separated? Partnered?: A Valentine's Blessing"

// what keeps you going, makes you warm, makes you hard, makes you other than dead //

Happy Valentine's Day

Insert "Hump Day" pun here.

Tomorrow is St. Claude la Colombière.

[the rest of the day]

"You know what's even sadder? Her hair."

"i already met you, you're like my last girlfriend..."

"He's gay too! sometimes" -Emma, on the back of the Spiderman valentine she gave me

"I see the mountain, and that is all that I see..."

"Jump, jump, jump so high / Watch me let you down / If I stumble I will stumble"

Whee, snow!

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May 2025

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