It is an awful godforsaken time of the night, but I finished Pride and Prejudice last night and just asdjfkl;jkl;

I will actually review the book at some point, but for now [really really spoilery!] [the book is, however, 200+ years old...] ( my thoughts )

tl;dr *Pride and Prejudice flail*, and why didn't I read this earlier


Crosspost: http://silverflight8.dreamwidth.org/102816.html.

Happy, happy New Year! May this year be better than the last.


Crosspost: http://silverflight8.dreamwidth.org/102515.html.

Advice: never wire money unless you have to. ¹

Interesting detail: gummy bear torture occurred in the hallway outside my room (!!!). Someone brutally tacked an orange gummy to the wall, and idk how it even stays (the pin shouldn't be long enough).

Other interesting detail: while I was in the bank, it was really foggy. The bank has enormous west-facing windows, so you could see one building on the next street which appeared to be slowly disintegrating into the sky. It's a standard high-rise, but the white exterior alternates with black windows, so it looked like a zebra-striped thing vanishing into air....it was incredibly bizarre. I thought at first that dark smoke was flagrantly disobeying physics and rising to the heavens in a zig-zag path. I wish I had a picture.

Being a student: is boring. Thought process during class: hm, okay, that makes sense, wait, what? no, what are doing? what? oh. ohhhh. I see. ok. hm. And so it goes. This is why I don't update much. Plus, I'm playing Runescape.

( Dear Liberal government: )

Today while in the drugstore I complimented a lady on her hat. She smiled and said: "Yes! It keeps me warm." The hat in question was the size of a car-tire and extremely white and furry. It was a bold fashion statement, to say the least. (She did look warm. Maybe I should invest in one too.)

Last thing: LiveJournal, too, has an announcement regarding SOPA and PIPA, although less in-your-face than Dreamwidth. I'm glad that both LJ and DW decided not to shut down as Wikipedia did; for a protest that specifically targets censorship, I think louder voices - especially on sites specifically designed for sharing one's life - is better. Wikiepdia's shut down is ramatic - yes. But I prefer having my voice.



¹ So due to an unfortunate confluence of moving and credit ratings, I, the sole member of family in Canada, was tasked with wiring money. This was a three-trip affair, and the last trip took over an hour. (Admittedly, mostly it was because I kept getting wrong info, but I digress). In doing the wiring, I talked to all of the tellers of my neighbourhood branch, had the manager called over multiple times (?), and listened to a lot of pop music. On the upside, I now know this branch really well! Good Lord.

² http://cfsontario.ca/downloads/CFS-Tuition%20Grant%20Briefing%20Note.pdf Retrieved January 18, 2012


Crosspost: http://silverflight8.dreamwidth.org/102356.html.

Messiah!

I went to see hear the Messiah yesterday a few weeks ago!
( complaints about own sillypantsness )

I am still in love with the choir, because it was fantastic. It is the choir that makes my heart leap - like a sudden rush of sound, all together. They had fantastic control over volume, so it could sink low and - this being in a concert hall - in dead silence, then boom out. And of course Handel gives them the opportunity: Messiah is chock full of glorious outpourings of happiness and - grandeur. (All we like sheep unexpectedly joyous, and he shall purify resonant, and of course Hallelujah magnificent. "Wonderful counsellor" stuck through my head on the half-hour of wet evening, walking home). I liked the bass and the soprano - the tenor was okay - but I am a firm believer that Handel, though he was also awesome, should never burden anyone (virtuoso or no) with passages that Messiah contains. As in fifty-note strings of trills, basically - in the bass (pardon me, baritone), they sounded like nothing more than rocks being shaken about. (This might have been "For behold darkness" or "The people that walked" but I don't quite remember.) Having analyzed the bit in the second part for music history, beginning with "There were shepherds", it was fantastic to hear another rendition - and the soprano didn't overload too much; her voice simply rang.

All in all, amazing. But I'd still rather have gone to the sing-along - alas!


Crosspost: http://silverflight8.dreamwidth.org/101875.html.

YOU GUYS YOU GUYS

I HAVE A FANTASTIC YULETIDE STORY

I am so happy. OH MY GOD I WANT FIC FOR THIS FANDOM and there was none and NOW THERE IS

EEEEEE

A Liar's Honor (1028 words) by Anonymous
Fandom: Novels of the Collegia Magica - Carol Berg
Rating: General Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Ilario de Sylvae, Portier de Savin-Duplais, King Philippe de Savin-Journia
Summary:

On why Philippe de Savin-Journia, King of Sabria, was so ready to trust his never-before-seen cousin Portier with such delicate matters.

MY SHIPPER HEART
IT IS IN LOVE


Crosspost: http://silverflight8.dreamwidth.org/101505.html.

this is another test entry in public form lalallala

( here have a video )


Crosspost: http://silverflight8.dreamwidth.org/100929.html.

If you would like me to send you a card for December holidays, please leave a comment or PM me with your address. I alas cannot make cards this year (my supplies are a few thousand kilometers away atm) but I will write notes in Hallmark cards and try my italics pen. Again. (You don't wanna see the copperplate :p) Let me know if you celebrate Christmas/New Year and such!

Comments are screened.

Essay-related (it's in, thank goodness), now I want to read the books I was writing about. What should I read first, flist/circle? Thoughts on any of them?

(alas no paid account here so no poll. POLL IN THE COMMENTS!)

*Tristram Shandy
*Pamela/Clarissa
*Northanger Abbey
*Robinson Crusoe (oh god I think I typoed that on my essay)
*Sense and Sensibility/Pride and Prejudice
*Great Expectations/Oliver Twist


Crosspost: http://silverflight8.dreamwidth.org/99635.html.

Surprisingly I'm enjoying writing this essay. Even if I'm still about 700 words behind (oh, the historiography'll have lots of words and I still haven't got an intro/conclusion and I'll manage fine, wordcount is usually not a problem.) For once I understand why the essay as a form is used. It is like waging a war: not guerrilla war of now, but the two lines of armies marching upon each other, like Spartan armies of old. One may delineate one's arguments with absolute precision and backup with sources and throw them THWAP THWAP THWAP at the reader. (Or gently persuade, but I like the in-your-face better.) Fiction is a lot less explicit and it's sometimes only after the 1000+ pages that you see the themes arcing delicately over. I suppose this would be biowarfare: creeps on you without realizing. Or maybe that's just very good undercover ops.

The elevator broke so I climbed up to my 23rd floor room after dinner. And then the fire alarm went off and I, being just then at the study room, climbed down 28 floors. As devil-possessed awful as the elevators are, I am really glad they exist <3

(one poor fellow I spoke to said he'd been doing his laundry. On the basement floor. He got off the twenty-first floor.)


Crosspost: http://silverflight8.dreamwidth.org/99479.html.