ink_splotch

I'm having a pretty good time right now. I feel very content and at peace with myself. Even the fact that I have a doctor's appointment to talk about my ultra-sound/scan this week isn't bugging me too much.

And because I am a sharing person (and a caring person!), I have decided to compile a list of things that make me happy, so that you might share in them.

1.

I've been listening to The Seeger Sessions: Live in Dublin all week, and getting a lot of glee out of it (folk music, who knew?). But particularly this song because it's one of my favourites anyway and I wouldn't have thought it could be improved upon. But it could and it is and just listen to the song. How gorgeous is that?

1a. Also, have a download of Frankie, the best Bruce Springsteen song ever (maybe).

2. You know when you want something to read, and you're kind of in the mood for something soppy and romantic and not straight? But you don't trust the Amazon recommendations, because quite frankly, they lie? Well, now there's this awesome post by cesperanza, which should contain enough recs to keep me happy for years to come.

2a. Also keeping me happy? The Best Short Stories of Lesléa Newman, most of which are lovely and quite of few of which are happy and involve sex. Yay, romantic lesbians!

2b. (When I'm not reading lesbian stories and academic things, I've been reading the Anne of Green Gables series. I can't help it! It makes me so happy!)

3. So, I've recently been up north, visiting Friend R, and I may be slightly enamored. And for enamored, read madly in love with Newcastle and Newcastle University. It all looks so awesome! And exciting! And they have a sort of "fast-track" degree where you can sign up for a PhD immediately, which seems oddly tempting. Particularly for children's literature at Newcastle, which looks amazing. I'm also tempted by the 'Literature, Memory and Culture' option, which looks oddly like something relevant and useful related to English.

3a. Seriously, Newcastle has a moor, a river, seven bridges and coffee rooms. I WANT TO LIVE THERE, you have no idea.

4. Today, it has been sunny, church was nice, lunch at the minister's afterwards was nicer, and going home and snuggling up to nap with Gemma was nicest. I feel so incredibly lucky sometimes.

5. Also, you guys gave very helpful advice with regards to my laptop issues. Thank you! ♥

So, apparently, fandom is once again debating is fanfiction inherently evil and bad? with added if it's literature, does it transcend genre? wank! Always fun, but instead of joining in, I instead present liviapenn's post, which, in addition to being coherent, also has several fanfictional novels listed, including Briar Rose, which looks amazing (and slightly like it might make me cry, because we all know how I am with books that combine the power of stories with the Holocaust (STILL NOT OVER THE BOOK THIEF *sobs*)). So go, look, and if you want more, metafandom is teeming with it these days - and now has a handy tags system.

I. Er. Have to go re-read a poem. And then bed.

ETA: Never, ever trust me when I say things like that. Instead, enjoy A Beautiful Lifetime Event - or kidfic done achingly right. John and Rodney have an accident with a piece of Ancient technology, and then they have a kid. Which all the ups-and-downs that come with it.

And now, seriously. Bed.

It would seem that I've been corrupted - or rather, it would seem that I have finally banished my obstinate 15-year-old self. I confess: I adore Jane Eyre and am hard pressed to put it down again. I started it last night after finishing Turn of the Screw - with which I was rather unimpressed, I'm saddened to admit; it worked on some levels as a ghost story, but felt rather...incomplete, perhaps? Though demon children are never amiss in a novel, to be sure - and, returning to the subject of Jane Eyre, I've been unable to stop thinking about it. How could I hate it? I recall thinking Jane sanctimonious and dull; why didn't I see that, far from that, she's complex and interesting and basically strong and good in an odd, but deep way. Jane is a deeply sympathetic character to me now; and the romance! How well buildt up it is! It seems obvious - Rochester always just on the brink of admitting his feelings, but holding back. I can't believe I thought the book dispassionate before - was I unable to read English? What kind of idiot was I when I was 15 (one wonders, one truly does, how I managed to ensnare Freya at the time).

This is not to say that the book is without fault. It's not; some of the passages are distinctly clumsy; and one cannot help but think about poor Bertha, but still. So romantic! So well-written (I swear, the langauge has me as ensnared as Jane herself)! I can't help feeling though, that I shouldn't find it as romantic as I do - it feels a bit too much like giving in - but I can't help it. It catches you and keeps you there, for the very first meeting on the moor, right up to when they confess their feelings. And yes, it's dramatic and perhaps overdone, but it just *waves hand incoherently* all the right spots. All the right spots.

(By the by, I am typing this while Jane and Rochester are still happy in their ignorance of Mason's return to England - I'm almost loathe to pick up and start reading again - I want Jane to be happy! But I know I must, because the ending - oh, the ending! also, the matter of having a seminar on the subject on Thursday. But mostly because of the ending)

***

Forgive the inelegant segue, but I wanted to post these while the internet is inclined to cooperate, so here we go.

It is sad to note that I can go into sex shops with narry a blush; I can request NC-17 movies without averting my eyes; I can discuss fic and kinks with Sofie in public without much embaressment and yet, when I have to venture into an HMV to buy a Michael Ball CD, I'm half tempted to pay someone to do it for me. But he's cheesy. And he was in Eurovision, dammit. And I shouldn't even like him as Marius, because he's oddly pompous, but he's also sweet and dorky and he blushes when Grantaire flirts with him and I own my shame, okay?

It helps that his version of Tell Me on a Sunday makes me wonderfully pensive and his version of Show Me never ceases to be hilarious (this is possibly mostly because I imagine him doing all of Audrey Hepburn's movements at the same time, and that's just funny). But I also kind of like those two (and Losing My Mind, which is totally the reason I bought the CD in the first place) because they're female songs. Or, rather, they're meant to be sung by women in their respective musicals and somehow them being sung by a man seems - well, not subversive, but pleasing, on some level. Hah! Not only women pine for calm and peaceful break-ups. Or something; I don't know exactly why, but it just pleases me. And now I shall stop babbling and present you with:

( Music! )

And now I'll return to Jane. Or possibly bed.

1 I know it's not fact, but the thought makes me happy! Leave me alone!

So, eye_of_cat did the interveiw thing, and not only is her answer to her first question basically what I've been trying to explain to, well, everyone since I decided to study English, her last answer is just *wonderful* I wish I'd been that creative.

We thought it would be, um, performing a public service to remind them to change their passwords. And that this reminder could take the form of a saved Word document titled 'READ ME NOW LITTLE PERSON' that was typed in 72-point font. And that it would be kind of boring to sign off as 'Another pupil'. So we invented a group of noncorporeal entities from another dimension that were caught up in the school's system by an evil spell cast by an intergalactic bandit masquerading as the music teacher, gave ourselves names, and left messages explaining who we were.

This was addictive.

It feels strangely weird to be laughing. Also, I clearly missed out in my childhood.

Meta on RPS in comparison to historical slash - remind me to meta on the subject at some point. Because if there's something I have opinions about, it's historical rps. And doesn't that sounds exciting.

Untitled - This Mac/Veronica fic is possibly the hottest, sweetest thing I've read in a long, long while. Why can't more femslash be like that?

This is the most wonderful bit of fangirling in a long while - and I miss my West Wing like you wouldn't believe.

Gah. Seriously. Adam, what are you doing to Anthony? And could you possibly do it some more stop? It's very distracting.

Yay for BAFTAS! And even more hurrah for Stephen Fry! What has he done with hia hair? But still, *pokes* very cute. And these metaphors are wonderfully silly. I adore him so much. And oh! So many pretty, awesome people. And Jake speaking about Heath and Michelle! D'aww, I fucking love awards season.

And have I mentioned that Capote looks fucking awesome? And that I really love Good Night, and Good Luck?

Stephen mentioned Denmark! Huzzah for shout-outs!

Anyway, I didn't tell, so to speak, but I've been in England this past week, so if something crucial has happened, comments are welcome. The week was very good, particularly, of course, seeing Freya again. And I have a song for you, since I've been listening to the Billy Elliot OCR, and in particular this song: Expressing Yourself (this and Letter and Reprise, but they make me cry like a little girl, while this just lift me up and makes me giggle)



So, I'm back, and I hope you all had just as nice weeks as I had. Am now going to fuck off and watch the BAFTAS in earnest. GLEE!

The broccoli test or how Chris' picks her OTPs.

In other news, because I can't stick to a single pairing/fandom at a time - has any one else noticed that Munch and Cassidy on SVU1 have a really cute and snarky relationship with kind of slashy undertones? Just me then? Damn.

I may have to write my own fic. And that would be bad.

(Fourteen pages in; fourteen pages. Almost done.)

In other news: Sofie is still best beta ever. ♥


1 Have I mentioned that I've discovered that the Hallmark channel shows SVU? And that I now have a crush on Olivia Benson?

ETA: I would also like to point out that Dogma could kick The DaVinci's Code's ass, any day of the week.

This is one of the most awesome metaquotes ever. I wanna run away, dress up as a boy and join the French Foreign Legion. Anyone want to join me?

In case you were wondering about Bono: my father came out of the lecture, decided to donate money to Make Poverty History and then spent the reception we were at afterwards trying to convince his colleagues to do the same. *That* impressed me. (As did Bono himself; he's funny, charming and knows a lot about what he's talking about and is not afraid to admit to what he doesn't know. ♥)

Meanwhile, I'm trying to relax with some Star Trek which, as always is love. It never ceases to amaze me that something *that* cheesy can make me so gleeful, but it does. I think it's partly my adoration of Spock, partly my love of scifi in general and just the overwhelming love that is tos. Not to mention the gay. The gay is good. Albeit more in the GLEE way, than the must-see-naked-now-omg way. They're so damn cute.

Particularly The Squire of Gothos. How can you not love that episode? It's so over the top and ridiculous. Ah! Cheers me right up. Which I need. *grins*

Out of curiousity, even though it's a movie about the crusades and all that, how many people do you think are going to see 'Kingdom of Heaven'?

Even if it is an Orlando Bloom movie, I will definitely go see it; literally tens of my favorite actors and actresses are in it - there's even a Danish actor in here [Tess corrected this; there are in fact two]. Impressive.

(  Here be babble and geeking out (and lots of links)  )

This song? Rocks. I'd forgotten...well, not forgotten, but I haven't listened to Billy Joel in a while and it's nice to hear he still moves me and makes me think. *cuddles Billy*