Variations on the same theme

Apparently preordering, on Amazon, does not mean that they will make sure they have the ordered item on the day of release. That would be far too easy.

Instead I get an e-mail telling me they're having trouble getting their hands on it. Not quite as fulfilling.

I want my copy of The Shadow's Return, damnit. Now.

SCREW YOU, JANET FRAME.

Ahem.

Sorry.

Now that I have finally finished reading this bloody long autobiography, I have the whole of tomorrow evening, after classes and internship, to prepare a presentation on it ("On the rim of the farthest circle", aren't you so very inspired?) for Tuesday's class. Woot!

PS, my brain is dead from the bar. *THUNK* That was the sound of my head hitting the floor. How can I be wanting to go to bed already it's nine thirty this is wroooong.

Gakked from the_grynne:

The current top 46 books from whatshouldireadnext.com. Bold the books you have read. Italicise the books you might read. Leave the rest.

( Clicky. )

Which brings me to: god, I used to read so much. I always had two or three books going on at the same time, and I finished them quickly, too. Now it's a struggle to get through one, because, very simply, I don't take the time anymore. When and where do I read? On the metro. And that's it. The internet has swallowed up my literary life.

Part of me would like to go "oh, resolution! now I shall read more once again! go back to those glorious days when I read ten books in a month, instead of one!" But I just know that it won't happen. The internet has swallowed up my literary life, and it sucks, but at the same time I know I'm not ready to give up any of my internet-related addiction to remedy to that.

So, um, yeah. This is pointless whining. I'll shut up now.

Baaaad night, and baaaaad awakening. That would be to a letter telling me that no, they didn't have any job for me. Wankers.

On the other hand, I'm discovering Langston Hughes, and it's good. I thought I'd share a couple. Okay, more than a couple.

( The Weary Blues )

( Moonlight Night: Carmel )

( A Black Pierrot. )

( Love )

( Beale Street )

And I'll stop here with the poetry-spam, but... I don't know. There is something beautifully evocative in his poetry. That first poem, I'm actually there, I can hear that blues. And some of those images - dawn bleeding into the sky, love as a brief spark in darkness - they just resonate in me, I suppose.

I'm actually not sure I'd like to study Hughes, though. Deconstructing his poems doesn't sound very appealing, not when I can just lean back, read them, and feel them. Now that would work better if I didn't still automatically notice some stuff.

Finally taking the time to update. So loads of fun were had this wekeend. It was supposed to be a weekend for me to rest and get some sleep back, but all plans went to hell when Fred called and we decided to go to Manchester. The Christmas market is lovely (kudos to blueberry warm wine and crepes) and there we ran into some other foreign girls, and assistants at that, French, German and Spanish. They told us they'd be at a bar tonight and we were welcome to join them, which we did. It was all manners of nice. It was a student bar and the DJ was excellent, he did his best to fulfill our requests. The music was consequently better than anywhere else we'd been to before and dancing was lots of fun. One of the German guys is a dungeon master for DnD and we might just rpg one day. Fingers crossed.

Which makes me think that, wow. Nathan Fillion actually sat down with some gamers and played a Firefly RPG with them. How awesome is that guy? And also, my crush on Summer Glau has reached epic proportions now that I have seen pictures of her at The White Room. Nathan and Morena together are sweet, but Summer is simply beautiful.

On Sunday night I watched the Beach. Alright, Virginie Ledoyen was lovely, but really... I didn't overly like it. Danny Boyle can do so much better. I want to see 28 days later again. Also, on another note altogether, the BBC adaptation of Gaskell's North and South (if you're reading this, Elodie: yes! North and South!!) came to a brilliant ending that actually got tears to my eyes. I all blame it on Richard Armitage's performance. I always cared about Thornton more than about Margaret, but he made me reach a whole new level of caring. He completely sold Thornton's epiphany for me. Brilliant. I want it on DVD. Very badly. And I'm gonna be obsessing on Richard Armitage (he has a voice... and eyes... and the accent he takes in NnS!). Kudos also to whoever wrote the music, it's marvellous.

On Monday night I went and had a few drinks with a teacher , one of those that went out with us the previous weekend. It was really nice, especially to be able to talk freely and away from school. Kinda fun 'cause we were talking in French and my French is not that much better than his, despite my being a native speaker. Etienne keeps saying I should spend a year as an assistant in France to improve my French; I heartily agree. I'm losing my own language, people!

Our plans for this weekend are to go out on Saturday night with the teachers and the assistants we met last weekend, but we don't know how much of this will actually work out. And also hopefully, Fred and a couple friends and I should go to Vanilia (lesbian bar in Canal Street) on Friday night. I don't think I'll rest this weekend either.

Finally, reading-wise. Clive Barker's Sacrament is a masterpiece, I can't believe I never read anything by that guy before. I absolutely need to read more things by him. However, I've only just started Patrick O'Brien's Blue at the mizzen for more Aubrey/Maturin goodness.

At last!

Yes, I finally have the opportunity to update. And before I go ranting on about me, me, me, and me, could I ask a favour of you guys? I'm not going to be able to read up on everything I've missed on my Friends page, so if you could just point me to any entry of significant interest and/or importance that you might have posted? Or just tell me very quickly what you've been up to these days?

Now, for my part - ( here is great. )

Am back in France! We're crashing at Jo's house while the Icelandic people are away to get our e-mail and stuff. Yesterday was the Day of Eternal Waiting, or so it seemed. We got to Stansted at 11:30, approx, and the plane to Dinard was at 7:15. Good thing I had Master & Commander with me to not die of boredom. (Which makes me think that reading it is a great help for understanding the way the Navy worked, and if I listened to myself I'd need to do a massive rewrite of FoF.) Also, cannot but agree with... was it you, khylarenelf? about the numerous opportunities for slash in that novel. I do hope I'll be able to either buy the rest of the series second-hand, or that the school will have them for me to borrow.

I have more news about next year, btw. The high school itself is in the village of Lymm, and I will live in Grappenhall, very close by, with at least two other German assistants, Daniel and Julia. We'll be sharing a kitchen. I need to call the woman renting us the rooms as soon as I'm back in Rheims.

Also, greenie_breizh liked her present! Yay. She's now happily listening to the latest Gaelic Storm CD she received while we were away. And I bought myself the Ned Kelly DVD. Couldn't resist it in the tax free shop, not with the cast in it - Heath and Orlando wouldn't have been enough on their own, eye candy though they might be (not my style anyway), but Naomi Watts and Geoffrey Rush? Oh yes. I can't wait to watch it. (And here's to hoping Orly will prove to me that he can act in a different way, this time. Or will this be a "Will Turner the second"? No wig to help make the difference between the two roles this time.)

Righty-ho! For some reason, I'm in a really good mood. Might be that I'm fairly satisfied with the way Thou Liv'st Forever (the Byron fic) is shaping up, through the corrections I've made. Sent it for beta. Turned out to be much more about Damien than I thought, too. Actually, here's the unbetaed first scene. Would love to know what y'all think, especially if you don't know Damien yet - to know where you think this is going. You don't need to be a big fanlander to read it, I don't think so. Knowing the basic concepts of Immortality is enough: Immortal guys running around with swords 'cause beheading's the only way to kill them. You're all set now.

( Thou Liv'st Forever )

Even the news that the bloody government won't let gay marriages proceed doesn't manage to get at my good mood. Probably 'cause I never thought for one second they would. At least now the debate is here, too.

Oh, and on Wednesday was Towel Day, by the way. A day in homage to Douglas Adams - I thought I'd take the opportunity to again advise all of you who don't know his work yet to rush to the nearest bookstore and grab his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, to start with. The guy was a genius. Anyway, if you're wondering what Towel Day was: all Douglas Adams fans carried a towel around all day long in remembrance of him. If you wanna know why the towel, go read the Guide already. Ford Prefect rocks my socks. Or, more accurately, my towel.