the little shadow that runs through the grass

Quickly:

-- Osama bin Laden is officially dead. I can still remember where I was when getting the news about 9/11: in my grade 10 science classroom, sitting at the lab countertops, listen to the principal's voice break over the intercom. The whole school went very quiet. I think somebody was yelling something downstairs but I can't remember what.

They said we could go home early, and I went home, and lay in bed for a long while and thought about planes overhead. We live close to an airport and we hear planes going in and out all the time, and it was so quiet. Everything was quiet. The whole thing was deeply urreal.

I can't even begin to imagine what it must have been like to be an American, to be in New York. All the people who were killed, all the people whose lives were affected--they're the ones who're important, they're the ones we should remember. Nobody should remember him now that he's gone.


-- Less serious news: Real life and job hunting are kicking my butt right now. BUT I'll be doing a round-up of fic posts soon and posting the invisible-Sherlock fic I needed to finish, like, two months ago.


-- I have a Tumblr! It is mostly for stalking people and reblogging things, nothing exciting like everything I post.


-- Awesome news!


-- More awesome news!


-- Tomorrow Canada may or may not have a new Prime Minister, so that's happening. Mycroft Almighty help us.


In conclusion, this is my very first, very crappy GIF:

One of my friends on Steam is in Hiroshima--she's okay, but her parents were supposed to fly in and now everything's a muddle. As soon as I got the news, I raced to Steam chat to make sure she was all right--still a little bit shaky.


I hope and pray that everybody, their family, friends and loved ones are doing all right.

Hai journal hai.


Last Monday the family and I went out for Family Day (the Ontario government: "YOU ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO PARTICIPATE IN HEALTHY WHOLESOME BONDING ACTIVITIES WITH YOUR NUCLEAR UNIT") to a restaurant right across the street from our street: Milagro, a Mexican cantina. The server was very, very nommable indeed, but sitting across from your mother and your little brother puts a damper on that kind of thing. I had chicken-and-cheese enchiladas drenched in this very tasty and very brown bean sauce, with spicy refried rice and guacamole, and melted all the ice on the road on the walk home. Sangra with chopped fruit is more or less my favourite thing in the world now.

Then a flurry of tests and homework, and Saturday I went out to the Met Opera showing at the local theatre. I picked Iphigénie en Tauride because of Plácido Domingo, and he was awesome, but seriously, Susan Graham has the most gorgeous soprano ever. She can sing the phone book at me, I won't mind!

It was really brilliantly staged--all the warm red and brown colours of blood for the priestesses, who are both the heart of the piece and the sacrifices and the slayers, and bright silver and blue for the cold King Thoas, and the stage was split up in chunks to convey cramped prison cells and a claustrophobic sense of space.

(Also totally the gayest opera ever. My hand to God, two-thirds of the thing is Oreste and Pylade singing about how they're BFFs and they adore each other and they can never ever ever be separated and they'll die for each other. There's no love interest! Oreste and Pylade are 99% canon!)

I hung out with the girls in the evening (chicken wings with extra dipping sauce, and the 2009 Star Trek) and next day I watched the Oscars with my dad--our yearly ritual. Anne Hathaway, I think you're adorable and I am keeping my fingers tightly crossed for your career. James Franco, not so much. (Colin Firth, squee!)



I hope everybody in the landslide in Bolivia is doing okay; this and this hurt my heart to read.

This is brilliant, though, and so is this.



Time to finish up some homework now before the house blows over. I leave you with this, from here:

And I have a Livejournal now, so I can stalk communities and suchlike. This will probably stay the base of operations, though.

Real life went ahead and dumped a load of bollocks on me in the past month or so--still unemployed, still in possession of a useless degree, still hopelessly dateless on Valentine's (and my hair looks stupid!)--but I'm getting back in the saddle and I have plans now. Plans are cool.

* This is a great blog, updated every day, about what's happening in Egypt.

* The Unpopular Woman Love Post is made of exponential win.

* 'Invisibility cloak' hides objects without using metamaterials: And we've already got recipes for Butterbeer and Firewhiskey, so The Mirror of Erised is up next, y/y?

* Linked from the sherlockbbc_fic comm. I could stare at this for hours.

* HOMFG. HOMFG?

I have about two or three fics on the go, an original fic in the works, and I still need to finish up my Nano draft. Time to work.


Edit: I feel like an utter butthole for not mentioning Brian Jacques's death--I broke up on the Redwall series after a while, but it was an amicable divorce and those books were such a big part of my childhood. Rest in peace.

Damn me for not posting to this journal more, when I resolved to and everything. >:|


Between the death flu and fear of another needle coming up in early February (it's only bloodwork--my phobias are irrational and crippling, I'm aware), I'm wittering around a lot and thus going to attempt to avoid the whiny in this entry. State of mesmiranda: starting classes again, catching up with emails and Facebook, working on the 2011 booklist (last year I got something like 150 books read; this year I want to top that).

I can't be flippant about the Arizona shootings: I just hope and pray for everyone involved. Before I was just annoyed by Sarah Palin and the Tea Party rhetoric (don't retreat, reload!), but now this is pushing it into actual loathing. And of course the Westboro Baptist fucknuts are going to protest the funerals. Don't make me turn this decade around and go home, 2011.

I have a bunch of fic I want to work on, including Homo homini lupus-verse where Lestrade and Mycroft adopt a stray puppy from an abusive home, but we'll see how the next week goes.

Let's end this entry on a hopeful note.

WHOA WHAT SERIOUSLY?

Wow, I didn't think I'd ever see this happen. Holy bollocks.

a) Dr. Mark Cloth is one of the best dentists and best human beings ever,

b) That was about eighty billion times less painful/terrible than I thought it was going to be,

c) My mouth feels so weird right now. Bleeeeeh bleh bleh.

I skipped Nano last night again, because I was freaking out, so now I should shoot for at least two thousand words tonight, if not more. Plus I have the copy-editing assignment to do tomorrow, and the Discovery Channel featurette and the top 10 things, and LOLA to review for Thursday at 10 a.m.

Boring stuff, screw it all, I'm just going to revel in this big squishy ball of relief and watch Toy Story 3. WIN.

Guess who gets to go in for a cavity filling next Tuesday.

GUESS WHO REALLY, REALLY, REALLY HATES NEEDLES.


There are so many, many ways I'm not cool with this.

And it's the kind of day where it's cold and blustery outside and you can just put your feet up on the sofa with a good book. Awesome.

a) This is one of the best fics I've read in a long, long while, and this lady/guy/squid deserves a shrine. It's breathtaking and it's quite literally perfect.

b) Nano soon! I have an idea but I don't know if I can take it over 50,000 words. Last year I actually finished the damn thing, but it's pretty clunky--I'd get someone to look at it, but then I'd start whimpering and curling up on the floor in the fetal position and there'd have to be paper bags to breathe into, is all I'm saying.

c) This is... out of left field for Valve. Not sure if serious or want (the last is a lie. Like the cake *gets shot*)

Whole lot of artgasm in that link, though.

d) I have to go for a workout soon. Balls.

e) Shooooooooooooooooooes.

I have a couple of vague ideas about what I want to do for Nanowrimo this year, and a homemade croissant challenge to conquer, and a zombie walk, and more of a new series to devour (hi, Naomi Novik!), and a new Professor Layton game to save up for, and a cheap martial arts class to find in my area.

Now provide me with some free time, universe!

In the meantime, I'll be off listening to Amazing Grace on repeat, because I am so very sad and I have no life, and working on this review of Canada's Worst Driver. Possibly there'll be tea as well, but I cannot say.