flying_anteater

I dumped Greek! I dumped Greek! I dumped Greek!

I finally realized that I don't like Greek. And all it took was 2 1/2 years. Specifically, a semester of Sophocles. I mean, seriously, how many participles does one language need?!?

Instead, I am taking Medieval Latin. And I love it! I can actually read it! As in pick it up and read it. I don't have to check a dictionary for every other word, I have consulted a grammar text maybe three times in the last week, and I almost never have to reference a translation. *bouncey* I've read a Roman Mass, and the Nicene Creed, and Sulpicius Severus, and St Augustine! And granted, "genitum non factum" confused me for a long time, but that had more to do with my weak grasp of medieval theology than my understanding of the Latin.

And ooo, idea for a St. Augustine icon! Yay! I love my major!

</a></a>azarias wants meta. I have to write about Alexander the Great. Meta. Alexander the Great. Decisions.

I finally decided to take Scans_daily off my f-list. Not that I don't love it, but it takes up half my list, I never have time to read it, I'm already ignoring things as it is.

In RL, this morning I had weight lifting. Do you have any idea how bad an idea that was? I used to lift, but that was a year and a half ago. It didn't make me sore so much as sick to my stomach. Why is that? What connects my bicep curls and lat pulldowns to my stomach?

...meta, huh? I have notes here somewhere regarding The Midnighter and Jenny Q that I've been meaning to inflict on people... *wanders off*

Today we disindecorated the Christmas Tree. And by "we," I mean "I." Funny how that works out, huh?

Anyways, it wasn't too bad. I watched The Great Mouse Detective and The Nightmare Before Christmas while working. I really wanted the watch Die Hard, because it is the bestest Christmas movie of all time!!! <3!!! But unfortunately, it was stored up in Mom's closet, and not to be had without lots of effort.

Then I broke an ornament. It was made up of three beautiful red glass bells, each slightly smaller than the other, nestled one inside the other. I knocked it from a really high branch, and shattered the smallest bell. It was really sad, but it reminded me of a DS story I read waaaay back in the day, when I still read that stuff regularly. I think it had to do with Dief breaking an ornament at the Vecchio home, and Fraser was all embarrassed and sorry about it. But it was a Vecchio family tradition that at least one ornament gets smashed a year, so smashing the ornament now meant they were really a part of the family, and awww sweet. And then they got to go ornament shopping. Okay, so it was kinda saccharine. It was a holiday fic, what do you expect?

Christmas is now officially over in the Anteater household.

Okay, so not very long ago, buzzylittleb  wrote this DS/American Gods fic. And because I love American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, I read it. Which eventually led to a discussion of Fraser as a large strawberry in RCMP uniform. And so b made this. Isn't she awesome?

Naturally, I had to give her something back. What could I do, but teach myself how to make icons? *Points up at icon, in case you missed it* Ta-da!

 

...And now that I know how to make icons, a whole new world is open to me! A world of color and text and 100 x 100 pixel squares!

Okay, so it’s possible that I lied in my last post, when I said that I wasn’t dead. I have in fact been dead for the last two months. In that time, I have:

 

* Finished my I.S.

* Taken the GRE

* Continued with the whole campus activism thing

* Spent entirely too much time hanging out at improbable times of the night with my friend, who I will call Chibi-chan (although she hates that)

* Applied to 1 and ½ Grad schools

* Read not <I>one</I> fanfic before today.

 

The good news is, I’ve finished my I.S., GRE, and almost finished the Grad school apps, and I’ve taken steps to lessen my ties to the Gay/Straight Alliance. It’s time to pass the torch anyways. I won’t completely abandon them, but maybe I’ll get some of my own time back.

 

So now I’ll have time to read! Maybe even time to write some stuff. So if there’s anything anybody feels I should read, let me know. There’s no way I can wade through all the stuff I’ve missed, although I’m going to try.

This semester, I have learned that campus activism and homework do not mix. So you know fandom is straight out. I have also learned that I will never do activism again... okay, that's not true. Like Tim saying he won't continue with the whole Superhero-ing gig. Yeah, right. Still, no more leadership positions. I'm going to graduate, and lead a nice quiet life working in a library and manning (womanning?) phone banks, writing press releases and grant proposals for the local GLBT Civil Right group, etc. Scud work needs to be done, and I will do it.

But when I do wander into LJ-World, I am very pleased to note that the Cass/Steph following has gained momentum. Also, people are writing fic for The Authority again, which I thought was beginning to dry up.

I am going to have a field day, come Christmas Break, trying to catch up with everything.

The AIDS Walk was today. It was fun and empowering and invigorating, and now that it’s over, I think I will celebrate by collapsing on the floor and not getting up for the next 50 years.

We raised a lot of money for research, though. So it was all worth it.

Bar bar bar, if you see this, post some Shakespeare, bar bar bar.

In our last
conflict four of his five wits went halting off, and
now is the whole man governed with one: so that if
he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him
bear it for a difference between himself and his
horse; for it is all the wealth that he hath left,
to be known a reasonable creature.

Much Ado About Nothing. So much better than Romeo and Juliet. Beatrice rocks! Really, I just wanted to quote the entire first scene of Act I, which really sets your expectations for the character. It's Beatrice at her best



I truth, what I really wanted to quote was the following, but that's just because I'm morbid, and it's less funny taken out of context.

I pray you, how many hath he
killed and eaten in these wars? But how many hath
he killed? for indeed I promised to eat all of his killing.

Beatrice, I love you! If I could, I would run away with you and listen to you be bitchy all day long!

Went scrounging through the latest entries at ship_manifesto this week, which is a wonderful way to spend my copious free time. I'm always impressed by people who post in there; it takes a lot more effort and analytical thinking than I'm usually willing to spend on fandom to write a "Why This Pairing Works" essay that doesn't basically come down to "Because it's Teh Hawt!"

Two essays were especially wonderful:

Azriphale/Crowley (Good Omens) - Man, I never knew people were writing this! I mean, other than the occasional story here, picture there. But for serious, this pairing needs a lot more attention. Next time I go home, I'm definitely digging out my old copy of this book, and everyone is getting a copy for Christmas!

And then there's the real reason for this update:

Virgil/Richie (Static Shock) - I have a very limited knowledge of this series. When we watch it, I'm usually not paying attention. Well, no, I'm paying attention to Rent-Girl (not the same Rent fan from the previous post), who loves the show and likes to pretend Richie is Mark and Virgil is Roger, and then supply them with really bad slashy dialogue. But that's neither here nor there.

My point is, I've been reading nothing but Static Shock fic since Wednesday. I was especially pleased with Summertime, and that is no way a baby-duckling response to it being almost the first one I read. Really! It had just the right amount of angst, without making me want to curl up and die, just the right amount of funny, without being humor. Warm glow.

There was also Mind the Gap, which features Richie's brain as a subway system, plus zombies. Zombies make everything better. It would be really, really good, except Chapter 7 seems... off. Not as good as the earlier stuff. For one thing, Static is in civilian clothes on a date at the end of Chapter 6, then suddenly in uniform at the beginning of Chapter 7. And okay, insto-chango wardrobe, with cool lightning effects in the cartoon. (Or as my roommate says, "It's like he orgasms, and then he's in different clothes," including mimicked sound effects.) But it threw me for about 12 seconds while reading, and I never quite recovered. Nit-picky, but there you are. Also, the story's incomplete! I probably never would have started it had I known that, but it was still pretty good if you can stand the suspense.

Anybody else have any Static Shock recommendations? And not thete1 , we already know she rocks, and re-read her over and over again.

I am a conformist sheep, who does what everyone else is doing. Also, this looks like more fun than Late Dark Ages Greece.

1. batman/nightwing:
   Not a strong interest of mine, but I've been known to read such stories on occasion.
2. clark kent:
   Glasses are an excellent disguise, really! Don't believe me? Once, a friend of mine went to a performance of "Rent," and chatted with one of the theater people during intermission. He was really cool. Finally, my friend asked, "So, what do you do? Are you crew?" And the guy said,"... I play Mark." So there. Perfect disguise.
3. eel o'brien:
   I blame Chicago for this one. If you haven't read her J'onnverse stuff, you should.
4. girls in drag:
   Androgyny. Does this really need to be explained?
5. impulse:
   Small speedster, circa Young Justice. Cute and annoying.
6. mermaid-in-a-champagne-glass:
   Pretty.
7. promethea:
   Magical manifestation of mythical archetype through literary endeavors. Or something.
8. slash:
   If this needs to be explained, you need to not be reading this lj.
9. the-oddity-and-the-idiot:
   One of my Prof's insists upon calling The Odyssey and Illiad by these names.
10. zatanna:
    Like Black Canary, wears fishnet stockings all the way up to there. But does magic and wears a top hat.

* Got a boyfriend boycritter.
* Moved out of my summer apartment with Shannon and Felix
* Spent a week at the parental units' house
* Bought a car (Finally!)
* Started a new year of college (I drove myself back ;-) )
* Best friend gave birth to a beautiful baby! (Okay, beautiful may be stretching it. He's a red blob of squirming protoplasm. Whatever.)
* Broke up with my boyfriend boycritter (In so much as you can break up with someone who hasn't contacted you in two weeks)
* Working on my IS.

In fact, that's what I'm doing right now. Working on my IS! Yay! Apparently, the IS writing process involves reading fanfic, updating my lj with the inane details of my life, and playing solitaire. Whee!

Oh, look! buzzylittleb wrote me an icon snippet! Jenny Sparks/Wonder Woman may be my new favorite impossible pairing.

I have much love for the b.

I've moved out of the apartment with Shannon and Felix, and back to the parents' house for a week before I'm back to school. I've been distracted from LJ lately with the packing and, eh, recent boyfriend Boything drama. Like, I might have one.

I don't like being back at the parents' house. It's just not home anymore. And granted, it hasn't been for a while, but it becomes less and less so. I miss cooking for Shannon before she gets home from work. I miss Felix trying to get me to read his books. I miss the kitten that shits on the rug. I miss the bum who sleeps on our floor but doesn't pay rent. I even miss the Boything.

Just. *Gestures.* Suburbia. My Parents watching TV in the evening.

I will never understand people who *want* to live with their parents.

The worse part about being sick is that it's impossible to sleep. One night I couldn't breath. The next night I had that dry scratchy throat, which isn't really like having a sore throat, because you can ignore that. No, this was the going-right-along, nothing-is-wrong throat, and then suddenly STABBITY PAIN! And the only way to get rid of it is to cough, and if you cough you'll have to cough more. Vicious cycle.

But I'm getting better. Really.

Thinking about getting my hair cut. True, I got it cut at the end of April, but now I want something stylish. My hair is really thick, and whenever I wear it down, it inevitably looks messy. And not good-messy, in that Leisha Hailey sort of way, but bad-messy. I don't want hair I have to pull back for fear that it will look bad 15 minutes after I brush it.

But I've never made radical changes to my hair, except for when I cut it short.

Thinking about it. Thinking.

For example, Shannon didn't really need to share her cold with me. She could have kept it all to herself, and I would have loved her no less.

So, you ever have one of those evenings where you're trying to write you IS? And you're sitting at your computer, fingers on the keyboard, staring at the screen, and nothing comes?

So you spend 15 minutes looking up the Latin words for various animal noises instead?

mugio, -ere - to moo
balo, -are - to bleat

Sadly, my on-line dictionary doesn't have the word for "to meow," and while I would like to know, it's not so important that I'm willing to get up and find my actual dictionary.

I will never, ever succeed in getting myself drunk, because I fall asleep as soon as it hits my tongue.

Today was tough. I walked to the nearest laundromat, and it was skanky and gross and the change machine didn't work. So I walked back home, hot and sweaty, with my hamper cutting into my fingers, and no clean clothes.

Just in time to get back home and see Felix break a glass of orange juice. He cleaned up the glass and juice, but hello? Fructose? Sticky all over the floor.

So then I cleaned the kitchen, which took a couple of hours, and decided to make fettuccini alfredo for dinner, which was good, but more work.

IMed one of the new members of the exec board of the gay/straight alliance at school, who feels we should make the group more "inclusive" to straights. Because everyone at school thinks you have to be gay to be in the "gay club," even though most of our members are straight. And just, the irony of saying the gay club had to be more inclusive... on a tiny conservative campus like ours... whatever.

So I get my one small drinkie and pull up my flist, determined to read some fic. And instead, I find a new anti-slash rant. Which makes me think...

But now I'm too tired to think. I'll tell you later ;-)

Meanwhile, look what I've been missing on comics_fanart! The cute! And, and Steph! Yay!

Today's IS productivity: 951 words.

So much fanfic over the three months I've been sans Internet! I can barely keep up with new stuff, much less play catch up!

And I can't just go around reading a bunch of one shots. Oh no, everyone's gotta be writing series!

thete1  has her Angelverse stories I never had time to start reading, and now she has about 20 stories in the series, plus she has her new Intimates series! And ain't none of her stories ever short! And cereta has the Hanging Work series, which looks fairly good. And who knows what else is out there!

Yes, there really can be too much of a good thing.

So instead of reading everything I've missed, I spent the evening watching Mary Poppins. Believe it or not, I have never seen that whole movie all the way through. Lot's of political references I didn't expect to be in there, which was interesting. Also, that Poppins bitch is a real Mary Sue. How do people stand that movie?