I may be working on a Merlin-as-a-girl manip. Rough draft below.
( Click for the shame )In other news, I finally found two books today that I've been searching for for years. I couldn't remember their names, just a few details about how creepy I found them as a kid. And then at B&N today I found the author I thought might be right and flipped through the omnibus edition and found them! John Bellairs, "The Mummy, The Will, and The Crypt" and "The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull". I now have some awesome childhood memories to resurrect.

Tags: books, merlin, shame

So we finally now own a PS2 (yes, I know). Which means that as soon as I get some homework done, I get to play Kingdom Hearts II. Go me! I'm also looking at getting Okami, Katamari Damancy and Persona 4. Plus Mik already has Prince of Persia, Spiderman, God of War, and uh, some other stuff. What are other good (or just plain fun) games we should get?

Also, just wanted to post this here: I'm over on LibraryThing (username ninjapenguin), which is a book cataloging and social site for book lovers. The Science Fiction boards on there are a good way to kill about twenty hours just reading a couple of threads because those posters are opinionated out the wazoo and couldn't shut up if you duct taped their mouths shut. (Meanwhile, the Fantasy group is a great place to go for recs, but has little discussion.) Anyway, a thread was up for trying to compile a list of 100 books to recommend to newbies in the genre, and there was rather a battle going on between one in particular poster and several others who disagreed about the worthiness of Golden Age scifi. Someone told said person that judging the quality of a book is a subjective exercise, therefore it's not surprising there was disagreement, whereupon he replied that it was totally objective. In the midst of all the ranting and snide comments and hand waving justifiedsinner gave me my laugh-out-loud moment of the day:

If judging a book is objective what units are we using to measure it? Is this unit fundamental or derived? For example: if the unit of fictional worth is 1 nabokov is this coulombs per hertz per metre squared or perhaps Fieldings per Tolstoy?

Okay, carry on.

So I was thinking about Naruto recently (found a link to reread_no_jutsu

I bought one of those scented oil warmers a couple weeks ago, and it's
really nice. For one thing--pretty. Red marbled-y glass folded into
a loose cup supporting a fluted pebbled glass dish on a mirrored base with a
light in the middle. For another, the bank now smells wonderful. You only
need a little bit of oil, and there are so many for me to choose
from--cucumber melon, orange blossom, spearmint, apple, rain, gingerbread,
passion fruit, strawberries and champagne... I finally get the whole BPAL
thing now (although at $4 per .5 oz, these are decidedly cheaper).

I'm planning to go get my copy of the special edition Good Omens this
weekend. Crowley cover if at all possible. I'll just say the devil made me
do it. ^__^

I just read Sisters of the Raven by Barbara Hambly. I've read some
of her stuff before, and I like her writing style, so after the
disappointment of The Secrets of the Jin-She Sisterhood I was hoping
for a good women-oriented fantasy adventure. For the most part, I wasn't
disappointed. Magic has always been the domain of men only, but suddenly
the magic is disappearing from men, and a new magic is appearing in women.
The world is primarily Middle Eastern flavored, and it might be interesting
to read it as an allegory for the current socio-political Middle Eastern
situation, but it's also satisfying on its own. Many men are resentful of
the increase in women's power, but some are just confused or frightened, and
a few are accepting, even welcoming. The women are just as varied in their
acceptance and use of the magic--some eagerly learning more, some hiding
their powers, some trying to meddle. There's also a drought going on
because the mages cannot call the rains; a new religion is calling for a
backlash against magic, women's rights, and the monarchy; and someone is
killing the female mages. At times it does seem a bit like she's piling too
much on, and the ending felt rather like a letdown, although I did enjoy the
inistence, carried throughout the book, that magic cannot solve everything.

Last night I finally read Grey's Anatomy fic. George fic! Yay! Although I'm
not sure if I should weep or laugh because I read George/Bailey. And liked
it. Curse you talented fic writers! George/anyone is pretty much just
great, I've decided. George/Izzy. George/Addison. George/Alex.
George/Cadman (yes, Cadman from SGA, and no, I don't really know SGA canon
that well, but still George bandaging Barbie dolls and belonging to a two
person D&D club! OMG love!) And svmadelyn (I think, it was one of my crazy
flist people) then offered up the idea that George needs to join the
Atlantis program, and yes. George on Atlantis. George and the Air
Force General with the head wound and the necklace that glowed when he
touched it and Christina wanting to know why it won't glow when she holds
it, and the careful not-quite-an-interview from the hospital bed, and there
could be a new security officer joining hospital staff and she asks George
out and feels him out about a lot of stuff, and he just thinks it's another
didn't-really-go-anywhere relationship, and then being called into the
Chief's office, and she's there, and "It wasn't sexual harassment! We didn't
even have sex!" and the disclosure, the information about the Go'a'uld and
the Wraith and the Ancients, and the offer to be on board the Daedalus on
its next run, and George in the chair, and George and Rodney and it
would be wonderful. And I totally cannot write this--I have next to
no canon and am in the middle of a ficathon and SGA is filled with writerly
goodness who can do this better, but alas, I lack a sharp stick to poke them
with to make them write this. So just read this garbled summary and make up
your own story. I'm sure it will be better than what I could write.

So, if my email post thing was working properly (which it's not; it says it can't find my PIN), this is what you would have seen...about a week ago.

So, apparently, all these last couple of posts I've done through email
haven't been posting. I'm trying this one more time, and if this doesn't
post...well, I don't know what I'll do other than not email post anymore
obviously, but I'll also complain very strenuously to the management.
Probably.

Anyway, to re-iterate what I've said in my last few (missing) posts:

* Thank you very much jcolanthe, my LJ Secret Santa, for the
book and all the goodies! There's a funny story behind The Book of
Jhereg. I got hooked onto Stephen Brust in HS, read all the Vlad books
I could find (which wasn't many), and then, somehow, forgot about them when
no new ones appeared. Then a couple years ago I re-discovered Brust and the
fun of Vlad and Loiosh and Morrolan and Aliera and Sethra. I ordered
The Book of Jhereg from Amazon, read it, loved it, and left it in the
car so I could keep re-reading it at lunch. Now, I live in Louisiana where
we have *very* hot summers. And hot car + paperback binding glue =
problems. I picked up the book one day to read it and had it fall apart in
my hands. I even tried to keep it for a while after that, but the pages
would get scattered and mixed up, so I finally, regretfully (and man, was
that hard to do) trashed it. So now I have a new copy, yay! And sparkly
things and chocolate and girly stuff, woo! I shall have to see if I can
think up some fic as thanks. (P.S., jcolanthe, if you're reading this and
have any particular ideas for fic, please let me know. I work well with
prompts.)

* The Yuletide story I wrote is called "Muder Among Friends." It's a Nero
Wolfe story for Rhiannon featuring a hard to solve case, poker night with
the guys, lots of Archie being Archie and Saul being cool, and even a dash
of Fritz. I want to thank everyone who's commented for the very nice things
they've said. I really appreciate the support! Also, I still think that
everyone should go read the Tactics story I received, stat. It is casefic
with snuggling and tie-tying, and it is by Harukami who writes
awesome stuff.

*I wrote a tiny XXXholic drabble the other day:

He is fuming to Himawari-chan about Doumeki’s latest bout of irritating
behaviour, “—and then he ignores me and announces he wants yakitori for
lunch. Yakitori!” He hurls the word like an accusation.

"I think it's cute," Himawari-chan supplies, looking at Watanuki like she
expects him to sprout pigtails for Doumeki to pull. He has a sudden
horrific vision of himself with Himawari-chan's long, beribboned pigtails
curling down his chest as Doumeki tugs at them curiously. He quickly
replaces himself with Himawari-chan, and, funny, he didn't think he was
supposed to be jealous of both of them in this scenario.

*I've been trying to get back my Desperate Housewives love, I
really have. But maybe it's that Bree hasn't been quite as kickass as usual
lately? Maybe it's that I don't feel any 'OMG WTH?' over the last death. I
mean, I am glad that Gabi finally got a bit of a reality check as to how her
affair affects other people. And I'm glad Lynette didn't go all jealous as
hell with some lameass plan to test Tom's fidelity that would backfire in
her face as usual. I'm glad Susan wasn't horribly insecure and clingy for
once. And I'm saddened that Bree has her views on homosexuality, although
it is perfectly in keeping with her character. I just wish she was a little
more...kickass with her son.

*Lost love is back! *flails happily* Hi, Mr. Eko! (or is it Ecko?
Eco? Echo?) I love you! And your priestly brother! Okay. So. Eko's
confederates (plus brother) were on the drug smuggling plane that crashed on
the island that Locke saw in his vision that led Boone to his death. Now
I'm just wondering if it's feasible for a little plane flying from Nigeria
to have enough fuel to make it to the island. (Surely if they'd landed
somewhere to refuel they'd have gotten rid of the brother? Actually, why
they didn't just dump him the moment they got over the ocean is a mystery to
me.) Charlie is a great big git for lying about the statue and the plane.
Now we all have to wonder if he's using again, or is he just stashing the
icons "just in case." What was computer!Walt's message?? "I need you to
come--" Come where? When? How? Aaaaaaaack! Stay good, Michael, stay good!
Plus, OMGWTFBLACKSMOKE! With the explosions and the staredown, and I second
Charlie's look of 'You Are a Complete Whackjob' at Eko for not running and
somehow making the smoke go away. Plus, you know, "scripture stick" and
"Just what kind of priest are you?"

I'm currently reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which Neil Gaiman has recced several times in his blog. I'm quite enjoying it so far, even though I feared I wouldn't. (It's been compared to Jane Austen, and I had a bad experience with Austen in high school and have since developed an irrational phobia of her. My phobia of Charles Dickens, however, (with the exception of A Tale of Two Cities) is completely rational.) There's enough detail to satisfy anyone, yet so far I haven't felt the need to hurry the action up. So, yay.

I also had an idea for my Yuletide story the other day, which gives me hope. ( If you're doing Nano, keep out; I have a research question )

( Elections )

( Maurice! )

( 'Song of the Beast' )

( Kink-y )

US cartoons:

Watched Justice League this weekend, "Fearful Symmetry." Blah blah blah
cloned Supergirl yadda yadda. But dude! The Question! Since I am not a
comics person much at all, who is this guy again? And apparently he has the
superhero abilities to...take on other people's faces and believe in really
complex conspiracies? I don't know. But I love him.

US comics:

Not-quite-US (Canada), but I got in my autographed issue of Cerebus
last week. The conversation between Swoony and Snuffy was amusing, as was
the talk between Cerebus and...elf girl lady pseudo-daughter thingy, but is
there a reason for all that irritating as hell eye-dialect? That
stuff annoys me, and it's hard to read.

Marvel-verse: I finally sat down and read Ultimate Spiderman #9 this
weekend. Eee! So cute and cool and gay. The fan service shot of Peter
checking his spandex pants for sand. "I want my boy." And Doc Ock reunited
with his arms! And Harry at the end with his "I'll kill you all." Is it
wrong that I want Volume three so much because of the cover art of Spidey
pinned to a wall by Doc Ock's arms, while the other shadow arms reach up to
molest him?

Anime:

Sat down and watched Volumes six and seven of Trigun straight through this
weekend. Ouch. Ow. Yeesh. And I know it just gets worse! But it did
provide some really good Wolfwood moments, especially with how 'Wolfwood
takes out Zazie to protect Vash' parallels 'captain takes out Rowan to
protect Rem' from the earlier episode. (Come to think of it, it also
parallels 'Iron Man takes out Norman Osborn to protect Harry' in Spiderman
9. It is my weekend of cosmically tragic misunderstood shootings!)

Weiss Kreuz: Daegaer has just gotten into watching it, and man, oh, man, the
memories it brings back. That Christmas break I spent reading every
single WK fic and website I could find. I've even read the drama cds.
More than once. And the Youji love, and the Assassin and White
Shaman manga Becca got me and the unfinished fics galore and the Bad
Fashion page (I still have some of those pictures on my back up cd. They
were hideous.) And my very personal revelation about the perviness of
Schuldich: Schuldich is a telepath. Guys think about sex every seven
seconds; women, slightly less often. The guy has a freaking live-action
porn show streaming in his head ALL THE TIME. No wonder he's always
portrayed as such a horndog.

American TV:

Monk! So, I saw the (end of) the episode where Monk goes to New York
on the trail of Trudy's killer and (the end of) the episode where Monk's new
medicine makes him non-OCD but obnoxious. And let me just say this: Disher!
Yay Disher! Love ya, dude. Seriously, the end of the season finale, with
him being all macho cop, "You shot my partner!"? Big, huge grin on my face.
It reminded me of--I believe it was the episode with the psychic--the
episode where the killer tries to attack Stottlemeyer and Randy leaps
over a coffee table to wrestle him to the ground. I love it when my
"Secretary Cop" gets to play hardball. (Favorite Disher moment though is
still Randy waxing enthusiastic about the car chase in the coma bomber
episode. Love that. So something I'd do/say.) Can I have my own Disher?

Books:

Reading all of the Mrs. Pollifax books I can get my hands on in
preparation for Nano. Also read Eats, Shoots & Leaves which is cool,
and as an occasional grammar nazi hit some of my kinks. (In case you
couldn't tell I have an unholy love of parentheses, and my view on the
"optional" commas is a bit like my view on cheese--the more the better.)

So, you know, good weekend. And I got a trenchcoat, so I can do Inspector
Gadget for Halloween. Or Lauren Bacall a la Casablanca. But probably
Inspector Gadget.

I finally got around to watching the commentaries to Pirates of the
Caribbean this weekend. Yay for obsessiveness! Now I've got an actual
timeline to work with for helping to fix that untitled St. Patrick's Day
fic. And I also now know why Norrington is so popular--Jack Davenport is
immensely fun to listen to.

Also watched Johnny English which was low-key and rather low-brow but
exceeded my rather low expectations because of Bough. Yes, Bough, he of the
cheekbones and comeptency and complete loyalty. (How did he happen to get
to Pascal's headquarters in time to rescue Johnny? Did he follow them
there? Was he too investigating Sauvage on his own? Do he and Johnny have
a secret telepathic link? (My personal money is on a tracking device,
probably planted in Johnny's wristwatch. Bough loves his gadgets.)) I can
feel the urge to fic calling for me.

I'm also re-reading all of the Nero Wolfe mysteries I have. I don't have
them all--yet--but I do have most of them. I'm not reading them in any
particular order, just novels first, then novellas and short stories, and
finally Death of a Doxy and A Family Affair. I figured it'd be fitting to
read those two back-to-back. I'll see if I can find some of the ones I'm
missing tomorrow, or even, if possible, Nero Wolfe of West 35th
Street which was the first piece of fanwork I ever read, back when I
didn't know what fandom was, just that I wanted to be cool enough to study
all about my favorite detective and write down all these cool theories about
him/them and then get it published. I've only seen a few of the A&E
episodes, but I'm tempted to see if I can rent them after I finish my orgy
of reading. I like their Archie. Mmmm....this weekend was positively
covered with dashing men of action. Too bad none of them were real. ^__~

Also, also, tomorrow I'm going shopping. And while I won't be anywhere near
a B&N (where is the nearest one I wonder? Is there one in
Alexandria, or would it be all the way in Lafayette?), there will be a
Waldenbooks. So while I'll hit the usual suspects (fantasy, scifi, mystery,
manga), also have comics--regular issues and TPBs. I've been nibbling
around the edges of the comics fandom recently, so I'm thinking of getting a
few issues. Anything in particular anyone would recommend? I know Joss
Whedon has an X-Men series out right now and there's also that Batman: True
Brit thing because I am a sucker for Monty Python. (Of course I shall look
for Captain Drew first, and if they don't stock it, I shall demand loudly
that they place an order for a hundred copies. Each issue. ^__^)

Also, I am happy because I got a review on my Croup/Vandemar story at ff.net
today. It used the word macabre, which has always been one of my favorite
words.

Never read Batman fic and Nero Wolfe novels in the same weekend. It just
gives you very weird delusions about the Amazing Adventures of Fatman and
his sidekick, The Man of Action. From his lair hidden deep within New York
City, the Fatman and his Man of Action track down dastardly villains, tangle
with bewitching heroines, and leave behind their calling card, a single,
beautiful orchid. Who could the Fatman be, the world wonders as the police
arrest yet another trussed up criminal vowing revenge against the dynamic
duo? In his comfortable brownstone, the blameless orchid grower and
millionaire dilettante Nero Wolfe shares a secret smile with his assistant
Archie Goodwin as they listen to the news of yet another capture. Yes,
people of New York, do not be afraid when murder comes to call. Simply look
to the skies for the signal of a flower against the moon, and know that
somewhere out there, Justice is sleeping in yellow pyjamas, waiting for your
call. KA-POW! BLAMM! PFUI!

So JKR has released the title of Book Six: Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince. I'd like to go on record with my guess that the
title refers to Hagrid, who is, after all, a half-blood giant. If I'm
right, you heard it here first, people.

Folk music is to punk music as Prince Hal is to Hank Williams, Jr.