Like Trying to Hide the Daylight From the Sun

So, the cosmos works this way some times: today was both my posting day for sncross_bigbang (yay for being on the first day!), and the day that all of my term papers came due.  So right now, I'm just kind of limp, and I somehow managed to lose all three lighters I took to campus today, but all is well.  Apparently today was what I've been working for over the last five months, and yeah, get me a nap and a beer and then I shall be properly giddy.

In the meantime, Fun With Students.  I call this episode, "Socrates didn't tell me there'd be days like this, days like this"
( I swear this university is much more selective with its grad students )
Yes, that's right.  It's surrounded by water.

My dearly beloved Roomie is not a participant in fandom, but she watches most of the same things that I do, reads a lot of the same things I do, and teases me for my fanfiction and internet addiction in general.  This leads to exchanges like this one from last night, when I finally watched Avatar on her parents' Home Theater System of Doom:

Me:  Eww... ganglia.  Do the Na'vi stick those into everything?
Roomie:  Pretty much.  They also have tails.
Me:  ::shudders::  Remind me never to read the fanfic.
Roomie:  ::grins::  Rule 34 is a cruel mistress.

( Some other fun fandom observations from Roomie in the last few weeks )
In other news, my sncross_bigbang  fic got claimed by an artist!  It's very exciting, I can't wait to see what she comes up with.  I'm also looking at the story for the first time in about a week this weekend - having given myself a break, I'm hoping I'll be able to see the text with clearer, more objective eyes.  Deadline's May 3rd for both me and the artist, it's going to be really exciting for me to see what this fic's final form looks like (and you'll all be happy that I've stopped nattering about it)

Finally caught Alice in Wonderland last night and am trying to figure out if it worked.  (I read it as an attempt to finally make Campbell's Hero's Journey work with a sexually mature female in the Hero role - I'm pretty sure it fails at the very end, but it's going to take longer to pull the various threads together)  There's a lot more of this meta, but I'm still sorting out some of it, may or may not ever actually make it up here, but a few pieces that I felt like sharing right off the bat.
( Attempts at giving Campbell's Hero a Woman's Face )

( The Queen of Hearts and Sex )

( Soundtrack Allusions and Connections )

 

This week's going to kill me.  God, I miss sleep. 
( Some quick observations from the express elevator to crazy... )

Okay, about that sleep thing...

Sorry if you're bored about hearing about the big bang story, but I had to share.  It's one of the main tropes of Discworld fic, but this story's from Dean's POV, so I despaired of being able to do it.  Despair no more: finally, in the seventh chapter, we have a footnote!  My cup overfloweth with squee.

(Oh, and for those counting, after 20,451 words and seven chapters, we're finally out of Ankh-Morpork.  I remember when I was worried about whether or not the fic would meet the word requirement.  Those were more innocent times.  Lancre, ho!)

I may have disappeared for a bit.  The last few weeks have been a combination of sleep deprivation, family visitation, unholy amounts of readings for classes (and it's the anti-last semester, so all of the readings are pioneering new areas of boring and pedantic), even more grading than reading (and my, the special snowflakes in this group), and, yes, writing the big bang fic.  For sncross_bigbang .  The Discworld one.  I swear I mentioned this. Currently at 15,350 words and not even out of Ankh-Morpork yet.  Crap.  Yes, there's a reason I haven't updated anything else in two months.  Plus, ooh, I think I've got a beta for it now.  Yays!

So why am I up at 6:00 am?  Because Havelock Vetinari doesn't sleep.

( And he hogs all the covers too... )

This is three minutes of pure wonderful. Superb writing combined with a delightful performance. The author's native  accent simply accentuates the perfection of the entire thing. How good is it? I heard it once, almost seven years ago, and it had stuck with me ever since until I found it again today. It is every bit as fantastic as I remembered.

They are there. I have seen them. I can spot them.

This is the kind of writing I strive for, that I wish I could manage: evocative without being florid, clear and crisp, wry and self-aware without being self-conscious.  It elevates banal routine to the level of mythological struggle while reminding us of the pettiness of our foibles.  I, too, am one of them. 

People wonder why I rail against bad writing so much.  It's because I'm addicted to reading.  I read all the time.  As a result, I've developed a palate for words, and the structures they make up.  Sure, I'll enjoy the occasional take-out Sookie Stackhouse book, because the execution's consistent and utilitarian and it's got enough story to stick to my guts.  But the truly reprehensible I'll spit out like bad sushi: better that than to suffer the bellyache for the next several days.  And like bad fish, you can often smell them from far off and avoid them entirely.

And that's why, to me, Codrescu's vampire narrator is sexier than a thousand Edward Cullens.  Especially with that accent.

So, Neil Gaiman won the Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book today.  And for some reason, I feel proud.  I think I may have internalized my adoration for his work just a little too much.

(Sadly redlit Fark headline: "Only Neil Gaiman could win the most prestigious award in children's literature for a book that opens with the horrific slaying of an entire family by a serial killer")

I'm also a bit squee over this promotional video for Watchmen. 

Not to mention both the "Lumps" song and "You Don't Have to Be a Prostitute" from Flight of the Conchords tonight.  Sadly, no links for those yet.

I really am going to start doing my thesis translation this week, I swear.

So, birthday party went very well... right up until the point when I realized around 10:30 that the sudden headache I developed around 8  was in fact a migraine.  Packed up the remainder of the chili (not much, people did a real job on it), told people they were free to stay as long as the roomie would put up with them, and headed to bed.  In case you were wondering, in the war between Tylenol PM and NoDoze, the Tylenol PM wins (caffeine is a known palliative for migraines and NoDoze was the only form of it in the house).  I feel quite a bit better now, but I changed my browser settings to display everything as white on black for a bit, stupid photosensitivity.

I was going to finish up Impossible Things today, but I've got a question for you folks, below the cut if you haven't read it yet and don't want to be spoiled.  Also, the question won't make any sense until you've read it anyway.  No rush though, I think I might do some actual homework to fill the time.
( Questions, questions )