Delusions of Grandeur

So it's been a while since I've posted here!

I'll try to avoid talking about IRL politics/world events, especially US ones. Things are bad and scary for all of us, in various permutations. Those "joy is an act of resistance" posts that keep going around have never really worked for me. If even things that are supposed to be escapist are suddenly Heroic Political Resistance, then all this awful shit is truly inescapable. Let's just say that I'm taking Tolkien's direction to "think and talk about other topics than jailers and prison-walls" very much to heart. I'm also making a lot of soup. (I hate making soup. I'm not a fan of cooking in general. But it's something that I like to *have done*, and making soup in particular weirdly makes me feel better. Maybe it's a control thing - everything that's happening feels so wildly beyond my personal ability to affect it, but at least I can make sure my family has something nutritious and okay-bordering-on-good to eat, so that's one less thing to worry about. Or maybe it's so I can tell myself that I'm stressed and upset because I had to spend all afternoon making fucking soup, rather than all the other reasons to be stressed and upset. I dunno.)

So, yeah. I hope you're all escaping your prisons, making your soup, making somebody you love smile, whatever works for you.


Geopolitical aaaaaaaa aside, weirdly, the news in my life has been mostly good. R2 continues to be the Actual Best Husband, and a few years ago we adopted two extremely fluffy and wonderful cats, Jasper (who is voluminous and gentlemanly) and Sammy (who is paranoid but slowly coming to accept that we're not trying to eat him *all* the time). Pics to come!

( My brother P moved in with us temporarily... I think two years ago now? )

( I'm a capital-L librarian now! )

Overall, my IRL life has been a series of surprisingly bright spots!


Reading/fandom stuff has been... a bit up and down, actually. There were quite a few things that looked promising but staggered in vital ways/failed to fulfill their early promise, but there were also a few solid hits, and a few at least interesting failures! (Or at least "I respect what you're doing even if I don't like it.")

First, because it's what everybody is talking about: the Murderbot TV show. I know I always harp on about how I miss the old 24-episode format, which allows for broader and less-hurried character development, but for this, the 10-episode prestige miniseries format worked perfectly. For a short, tightly-written, fairly high-octane story, it made a short, tightly-written, fairly high-octane miniseries.

Did I like it? ...I think so. I definitely liked that everyone involved seems to have been a massive fan of the books, that Martha Wells was involved so heavily, and (it sounds like) that she was given so much creative control. I think most of the things that annoyed me are actually either "they changed it and now it sucks" or inevitable consequences of the print-to-screen process. So while my overall enjoyment might have been like a 7/10, fairly I think this is a solid 9-9.5/10 show.

( My thoughts (spoilery for the show, plus all books through System Collapse)... )
I had planned on writing about a whole bunch of other stuff (Le Guin! Romance novels! Hugo nominees!) buuut I do want to get this post out sometime this week, so I'll have to save those for next time. XD

Well, here I am, back in Sebastopol after a couple of VERY crazy, but on the whole, amazing, days! Most of my stuff still needs to be unpacked, and I'm thinking a major rearrangement of my room is in order - a culling of my books is long, long overdue, general organization is much wanted, and there has been talk of re-doing the carpet in my room (which has been the same since we moved here 17 years ago, and has been subjected to, um, attention from our various pets an estimated sixty bazillion times), which means moving everything. So, yeah, taking my down time while I have it.

( Saturday: GRADUATION, and all that it entails... )

( Rest of the weekend/week: packing, unpacking, and generally a lot of "welcome back to real life" Bustling... )

( A few more STID thoughts (SPOILERS!)... )

( WoW is once again singing its siren song... )

hamsterwoman tagged me in the next go-round of the merrily self-perpetuating meme from last time, and I got:

( Edith/cloche hats, Jane Austen, HOME class, Age of Sail, and Librarian-ship... )

And because hamsterwoman is a meme-er extrordinarie, she also mentioned the following, which I took as carte blanche to talk about even MOAR stuff! :D

( John Granby, epic family reunions, and mountain lions in the living room... )

According to hamsterwoman, this is what all the cool kids are doing.

( Here there be memes (mix of RL and fandom ramblings)... )

I've noticed a fair-sized upswing in visits to this little corner of my brain recently (which may or may not have to do with me joining the wide and wonderful world of westerosorting  and its cohorts *waves Stark Pride banner*), so I thought I'd make a general "who I am and what I'm up to" post. This is technically yet another meme, which comes from blaze_villain , who originally got me started on memes, so I guess this is fitting. 

You know how sometimes people on your friendslist post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating HIM/HER? Since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out.


( 1. First name... )

( 2. Age... )

( 3. Location... )

( 4. Occupation )

( 5. Partner... )

( 6. Kids... )

( 7. Brothers/Sisters... )

( 8. Pets... )

( 9. Big things going on in my life... )

( 10. Parents... )

( 11. Closest friends... )

[Error: unknown template qotd]I putter around a couple of hours a week at the library, shelving books, helping people find things, and doing other grunt work, enjoyable though it may be. For a while, I toyed with the idea of volunteering for our local Humane Society, but after a while I just wanted to take all of the animals home with me, and I got pretty depressed, so I quit. I kinda wish I could go back, though.

Goodness, so much has been going on! I haven't really had time to write about everything, but now my paternal grandparents' house has wifi, so now I've got some time to do so.

( Event #1: About a week ago, my paternal grandmother died... )

( Event #2: New teacher, new way of looking at things... )
( Event #3: Job!... )

( Event #4: The makings of a fairly complex fanfic... )