(Cross-posted, sorta, to the reading blog.)

I’m doing a lot of swiping things from other blogs lately, it seems like.  This one’s from Eihdos:

Dark is Rising

This is one of those news stories that makes me regret my anti-squee policy.  I read these books back in…  gosh, what, seventh grade, I think.  And it’s one of those series that I loved to pieces and keep meaning to reread, but other stuff keeps coming up, and I don’t have a copy and neither does Dad (that I know of) and the library’s copy was out and so on and so forth.  I’m excited to see what they’ll do with it, especially since this is coming from Walden Media, who did such a good job with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Now, I think it’s time to get my hands on a copy of the series and re-read it at long last…

Well, once I finish Burkert.  70 pages left!  *sigh*

It strikes me that Lord of the Rings was more than just a really good movie trilogy.  It seems to have opened the door to movie adaptations of plenty more really good fantasy novels.  There’s the Narnia series (Prince Caspian is already in the works), and His Dark Materials (which I still need to read, preferably before the movie is released, but I hear is excellent), and now this…  I think there have been some made-for-TV adaptations too.  Earthsea, at least, though I heard mixed reviews of it and I seem to recall that LeGuin wasn’t exactly behind the project.  (And, gods help us, Mists of Avalon, but fortunately that travesty came before the LotR movies, so I don’t feel obliged to count it.  Plus, I think the novel was a little later than the rest of what I’ve been citing here anyway.)

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Sometimes, after participating in a production (even if only for tech week plus performances), bits and pieces of the play in question just won’t leave my brain alone. Here are some selections from Hadrian the Seventh. A few may not be exactly correct verbatim, but are “close enough”.

Rolfe: Tickle your ass with a feather.
Mrs. Crowe: What’s that?
Rolfe: Particularly nasty weather, Mrs. Crowe.

Rolfe: You can’t get shit from a wooden rocking horse, you rapacious–concupiscent–female!

Courtleigh: You keep harping on that string.
Rolfe: It is the only string you have left unbroken in my lute.

Ragna: He has the humility of a Neopolitan tenor!

Rose: I have been in the kitchen, and I have seen things. They cannot deposit sputum in the shells of boiled eggs.

Hadrian: Yet you choose to perservere, my son!
Rose: Sanctity, I must. I am called.

Courtleigh: What, then, are the priesthood to live on?
Hadrian: The free will offerings of the faithful.
Courtleigh: And if the faithful will not give of their free will?
Hadrian: Then starve and go to Heaven.

Ragna: I am too fat to become a martyr!
Hadrian: My dear Cardinal Ragna, inside every fat priest there is inevitably a bony martyr crying out for beatification.

Sant: Not by a long chalk. Not by a very long chalk.

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It appears that I owe Tim an apology.  I have said this to him privately, but thought it would be appropriate to post it here as well.  The transgression was public; so should the apology be.

I should have discussed with him blogging the fact that we’re trying to have a baby at some point before I posted the announcement Tuesday.  I was being somewhat thoughtless; it simply hadn’t occurred to me that he might prefer to keep quiet about it until conception actually occurred.  Which, as it turns out, is actually the case.

I can’t un-say it, but I can and will apologize.  I’m sorry, love.  I’ll try to be more thoughtful about such things in the future.

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I continue to recieve mailings from the Indiana GOP. Primarily they go something like this: “Baron Hill is the Antichrist! Mike Sodrel is an angel come to defend you from the evil Democrats!” I might be paraphrasing there, but that is the gist of it. One side of the paperboard mailer enumerates Hill’s crimes, and the other extolls Sodrel’s virtues. It’s the same thing over and over. Often it’s even the exact same information (or lack thereof) over and over; I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the list of their respective records on the issue of abortion.

My polite request to be removed from their mailing list appears to have had no effect. At this point, Election Day is so close that there’s probably no point in trying again.

It’s not that I think Baron Hill is some kind of angel or anything. I mean, I have no idea. But what I do know is that he’s not killing forests to stuff my mailbox full of hateful unwanted spew. And, thanks to the Indiana GOP, I now also know that it’s likely that at least some of his views on things like gay marriage and abortion match up with mine, whereas Sodrel is in favor of things that I feel curtail the rights and freedoms of his constituency needlessly. I do think that homosexual couples should be allowed to get married. While I don’t particularly like abortion in broad general terms, I do think that in the end the choice should be the woman’s (or the couple’s), not the state’s. I do not want the NSA listening in on my phone conversations or poring through a list of books I’ve checked out from the library, thankyouverymuch. Who do you think this campaign has made me more likely to vote for?

I don’t get it. What good are these mailings supposed to do? Does this crap actually convince anyone? Does it actually sway voters? To their side, I mean?

I have the urge to write a letter bitching about it, but I’m not sure what I’d say. Like I said, it’s really too close to election time to expect it to do any good, so I’m not sure if there’s any point in it. But it would make me feel better! But it might not serve any other purpose.

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Bad News: Amazon’s free music section now officially sucks. It appears that they’ve removed the actual index of songs and artists. Basically, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’re screwed. Not only that, but it’s really hard to even find (not that it’s really worth it anymore anyway, hence my lack of a link here). I think you even have to have a link directly to it to even get there; I didn’t see anything at all even on artist pages like Collide that I know have free downloads available.

Good News: As I was flipping through podcasts in iTunes, I discovered that This American Life is now available for free. Previously we’d had to pay through Audible to get it. I don’t know how long this has been going on, but it seems relatively new. So! Cool! (Look, if Mikey G listens to Rush on his lunch hour without even using headphones, I can perfectly well listen to Ira on my lunch hour using headphones. So there.)

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I’ve been on a music quest again lately. I’ve been getting into… I’m not sure how to describe it. Some of it’s goth rock, some of it’s a little trance-y, some of it’s a bit industrial, some of it’s just plain indie alternative. My playlist is heavy on Tapping the Vein and Collide. I like the ethereal female vocals over harder music thing.

Anyway, I did a couple of searches for specific bands that led to me branching out a bit. Firstly, I was looking for Nightwish. I had a vague memory of someone telling me they were what Evanescence wished it was, which sounded interesting to me. Secondly… I am embarrassed to admit that I got confused on secondly. I have “A Love Song” by Loaded Dreams on my playlist, courtesy of betterpropaganda. Somehow I got the name Lacuna Coil attached to it in my head and went wandering off looking for that for quite a while before I realized I had the wrong name. (Which is a shame, because Loaded Dreams turns out to be a whole hell of a lot harder to find.)

Nightwish… Yeah. It’s not “what Evanescence wishes it was”, from the samples I’ve heard at Amazon (etc.). They’re both goth-y rock-y bands, and in some photos taken from the right angle with the right amount of eyeliner there’s a vague resemblance between the singers, but that’s really about it, I think. Nightwish’s lead singer, Tarja Turunen (former lead singer, I should say, according to the site), is a trained opera singer, and it really really shows. The vocals are very operatic. It’s a very different sound from Evanescence, and I’m… not really sure where the comparison comes from. It’s not a sound I really like all that much; I think I could take it in small, carefully selected doses, but not a whole album’s worth.

Somewhere in my roaming around Amazon, I discovered someone’s list of female-fronted goth rock groups. In that list I found Leaves’ Eyes. I also found Ambeon. I listened to a few samples from each of them. Leaves’ Eyes captured my interest almost immediately, but I was more worried about Ambeon. None of the samples I could find included vocals! There were vocals; they were part of the draw of the group. But the samples inevitably cut off before the vocals came in. So I asked Tim to purchase digital copies of Ambeon’s lone album and Leaves’ Eyes’ Lovelorn. (And Sarah McLachlan’s new Christmas album, Wintersong, but that’s a whole different thing.)

I’m listening to them this morning, and… It’s funny how things don’t turn out the way you think they will. I don’t know if the samples I’d heard from Leaves’ Eyes just weren’t very representative or what, but the overall sound wasn’t what I was expecting or hoping for. While not nearly as operatic, it still has a dramatic quality about it that reminds me more of Nightwish than anything. That quality is sufficiently toned down that I don’t dislike it, and I’ll leave it on my playlist, but… It’s not the wonderfulness that I’d thought it would be.

Ambeon, on the other hand, has completely won me over. It was exactly what I was hoping for. I had (ironically) been worried that the vocals would be Nightwish-y, but they’re not. It fits right in with my previous selections. I’ve not heard the whole CD yet, but so far I particularly like the track “Cold Metal”.

So for the moment I’ve got me some lovely new music, and I’ll continue to mull over the question of Lacuna Coil, and probably at some point peruse Amazon’s free music download area again (which is how I found Collide) to see if I can find anything else yummy. And I can highly recommend Ambeon.

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Very Short Stories 

Swiped from Neil Gaiman’s blog:  several writers were challenged to write a story six words long.  Talk about your micro-fiction.  I’m not entirely certain what qualifies many of these as “stories”; seems like most of them are more teasers than stories.  But they’re interesting.  Some of my favorites:

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.
- Joss Whedon

Longed for him. Got him. Shit.
- Margaret Atwood

Kirby had never eaten toes before.
- Kevin Smith

Heaven falls. Details at eleven.
- Robert Jordan

MUD avatars rebel: virtual Independence Day.
- Paul Di Filippo

Leia: “Baby’s yours.” Luke: “Bad news…”
- Steven Meretzky

Dorothy: “Fuck it, I’ll stay here.”
- Steven Meretzky

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Little brothers who are easily disturbed by the idea of their older sisters doing or being or becoming certain things may want to skip this entry.

I think I can finally say this, officially. Things seem to be staying on track this time, so I don’t feel like I’m going to jinx it or anything. The time has come: Tim and I are going to try to have a baby. I’m not going to get into specifics of the, er, process here, because that’s just… too personal, too private, for me to put out there for the world to read. (So, if Andrew’s still with me here, don’t worry, bro–you don’t have to read about your sister’s sex life!) But I wanted to say something about it, because it’s been on my mind for a while and will continue to be so, and it’ll be good to be able to blog about my mental and emotional state while this is going on. (I will not generally make any attempt to say much about how Tim’s feeling about it, though; he has his own blog if he wants to do that. I’m not trying to leave him out here, I just feel it’s better if I leave his stuff to him.) So: It’s official, we’ve started trying.

It’s taken us a while to get here. Some of you who already knew this was in the works are probably going, “What, finally?” We hit a few bumps–some miscommunication between the two of us about the timing, and then we needed to delay to pay off a little more of our debt so we could be a little more stable financially. And then we discovered that I was eligible for some short-term disability insurance which would partially cover my maternity leave, but open enrollment wasn’t until this month, so we had to put it off again. But here we are, now.

I am… I am ready for this, certainly. But also very nervous. It’s not the paralyzing fear that I once had of being pregnant. There was a time when I couldn’t so much as think about it seriously without starting to panic. It’s not like that anymore, not by a long shot. But, you know, this is a big thing, and one of the most permanent and irreversible things I’ve ever done. And as exciting and wonderful as the prospect of becoming a mother is, that does make it kind of scary at the same time. Not to mention the sheer unknown-ness of it. I’ve taken care of kids before, but I’ve never had one of my own. There’s the ever-present prospective parent’s fear: Will I be a good mommy? There’s also the sort of looming possibility that something beyond my control could go wrong. I’ve no cause to believe it will, but the human body is a funny thing. You never know. There are so many things that could happen, from infertility to miscarriages to birth defects to infant mortality. If something like that happens, how will we handle it?

But the only way to completely ensure that such things never become an issue is to not ever have a child. Those are risks one accepts when one starts trying to get pregnant. I think I’ve done what I can to minimize the risks. All those deadlines about quitting alcohol and caffeine, and cutting sweets, and focusing on healthy eating and exercise? Some of that was simply to make myself feel better about myself, yes. And some of it was to earn tattoos! But it was also about this. It was also about making my body the best place it can be for a growing baby. I feel confident that I personally, and we as a couple, are at just about the best place for having a child that we’re ever going to be.

*deep breath* Here goes. Wish us luck.

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It’s that time again:  Tech week, and I’m running lights.  This time it’s for Hadrian the Seventh, by Peter Luke, directed by my very own daddy.  (I’ll direct you to the article on our local wiki about our group for a synopsis of the show.)

I always do have some measure of fun doing the lights.  Oh, I bitch and moan about it, but in the end I have to admit, it’s not bad.    I’m having a better time than usual with these, though.  I’m not sure why that is.  Maybe because I’ve got a bad cold, which distracts me from the odd mistake so I don’t dwell on it.  Maybe because the lights are (mostly) pretty simple, so there’s not a whole lot to worry about.  Dunno.  But it’s going really well.

With just enough time between work and call time to grab dinner, though, it can be difficult to work exercise in the way I’d like to.  (HA!  You thought this wasn’t going to be about food or exercise, didn’t you?  Seriously, I’ll get back to those posts soon.)  Besides that, the weather’s taken a serious downturn lately, so it’s been harder to walk around the outside of my building at work the way I like to.  So I’ve been making a special point to search out ways to exercise at work.

So far this one has been my most-used.  It seems like a good way to get some general activity throughout most of your body.  I do each exercise five times (or five on each side, if it’s a right-side-left-side thing) and it takes me about ten minutes to get through.  I’ve also found a site full of exercises to be done at your desk, some yoga for at your desk, and a set of desk stretches.  I’ve run through the yoga and stretches each once, but otherwise haven’t had much chance to check those out.  Looks like a good way for those of us with a sedentary job to stay active during the work day, though.

Anyway, so I’ve been making sure to make a point of doing these each day, preferably more than once.  It’s not the same as exercising after work for half an hour straight, but hopefully it will do some good and at least keep some activity going.

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Pope Benedict Proclaims Four New Saints

One of these four is Mother Theodore Guerin, who I’m sure did many noteworthy things, but the one that caught my attention was that she founded St. Mary-of-the-Woods College.  Terre Haute, an hour and a half northwest of me, is better known for its other two campuses (Indiana State University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology), but it does also host a third college campus:  St. Mary-of-the-Woods.  I don’t know that I’ve ever been aware of a saint so close to home before.

Of course, this has nothing to do with anything.  It’s just one of those “hey, neat” moments.  Heck, I’m just happy to see Indiana featured prominently in a story that doesn’t involve VX gas, vice presidents who can’t spell, etc., etc.

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