There is more bizarre shit on Youtube than can be comprehended. I was looking for more Bollywood WTFery when this inexplicably came up.



It's kind of long for a trailer...were they too stoned when they were putting it together or what? Is there really a movie called "Italian Spiderman"? Why is Italian Spiderman so gross? What's with the close-ups of his mustache? Too many existential questions are raised by this piece.

Seems to be a very persuasive meme!

Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
Turn to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post that sentence along with these instructions on your LJ.
Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

OK.

"Had Hideyoshi's fellow generals and the two regents cooperated against him, then the chance of a Toyotomi triumph would have been very slim, because between them they had Hideyoshi surrounded."

From Essential Histories: War in Japan 1467-1615, by Stephen Turnbull. Top of the stack next to the computer. And the sentence actually came from page 57, since page 56 had a large illustration and sentence two continued to the next page!

Brought to you by Bollywood, it's, uh, well, you'll have to see for yourself. This is so WTF, it's amazing:






Or maybe I just need to go to bed. Yeah, that's it.

ETA: I finally cornered got my husband to watch it. He says that music will haunt his nightmares forever.

Dude, I am tired. My dad came up from Miami to visit this weekend, and hubby suggested that we go out to Eglin Air Force Base (a couple of hours away) and take him to visit the museum they have there. It was a huge hit. Both of them, dad and hubby, were geeking out over the vintage planes they have scattered around, including several WWII planes and Cold War relics. (I myself was thrilled to see an actual SR-71 Blackbird, because that's the plane the X-men use! Yes, I am a comics nerd.) We took the scenic route back along the coast, which took about 5 hours instead of 2. We got back a little while ago.

Not sure what we're going to do tomorrow, but I suspect that for the guys at least it will involve football-watching in the living room.

I borrowed the new book by Stephenson, Anathem, from the library, and it's due tomorrow. I went online to renew it, and I got a "renewal failed" message, because apparently someone else has requested it. WTF, I haven't even gotten through a quarter of it yet!! This is Neal fucking Stephenson, who writes dense, weighty tomes that take weeks to get through! He invented another language and inserted some words randomly! It has math in it! And I'm only just now getting out of the explanatory and into the interesting bits!

Well, damn. I have a conundrum. There is no way, even if I stayed up all night, for two or three nights even, that I'd be able to finish it. I read fast, but this is Stephenson. I really didn't want to buy it in hardcover, hence the library. It looks like there's a reserve queue for it, so once I turn it in, I won't get access to it again in a hurry. Shit. I wish I had started reading it as soon as I got it, but I thought I'd be able to renew.

Speaking of books, here's a book meme:

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Well, yeah. Rather obvious.

That's what they call them around here; they show up out of nowhere during hurricane season. I can't remember what their real name is. Of course, now when I see them I think of Inuyasha, and specifically Kikyou . (As a matter of fact there are images of them for this month on my Inuyasha calendar...the plants must keep to the same schedule their progenitors kept in their ancestral homeland.) It always thrills me to see them, since they will bloom out of a seemingly bare patch of ground--they have no leaves, just a flower stalk. It's harder to tell here, since they're blooming out of a patch of weeds.


Here's a close-up:

So dramatic! I hope we get a few more in unexpected places. We knew there were at least a couple of them in this area, which is why it doesn't get mowed.

Found this, seemed a little more interesting than the average quiz:

I'm a Mandarin!

You're an intellectual, and you've worked hard to get where you are now. You're a strong believer in education, and you think many of the world's problems could be solved if people were more informed and more rational. You have no tolerance for sloppy or lazy thinking. It frustrates you when people who are ignorant or dishonest rise to positions of power. You believe that people can make a difference in the world, and you're determined to try.

Talent: 36%
Lifer: 46%
Mandarin: 64%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

They explain what their categories (Talent, Lifer, Mandarin) mean here. I definitely love the job I have--it's very intellectually demanding, and I learn something new nearly every day. On the flip side, it always feels like we're short staffed so I'm burned out and tired when I come home. Like right now--I'm idly looking at blog quizzes instead of doing something more useful. Time to go do something else!

ETA: Still here. I rediscovered this. Love the 'corporal cuddling'--I thought we were the only freaks who did this to our cats.

 

 

There was an interview with Rumiko Takahashi published today in a Malaysian paper that I thought was interesting. I'm not sure at what point the interview was conducted; the writer indicates the series just ended, but Takahashi is quoted as saying,

When it came to the fate of the series’ heroine, even with a publication deadline already on the calendar, Takahashi told me: “I still don’t know what I should do with Kagome in the end.”

Takahashi said she does not decide things in detail when she creates manga for weeklies since some improvisation is necessary for such publications. “My story in a way automatically develops according to the characteristics of the characters.”

I wonder when she made up her mind? Wish the article had given some hint as to what her next project is. Whatever it is, she probably has an outline for the first 10-20 chapters, and she'll wing it after that. lol Takahashi.

I was just out watching my neighbors across the street get a tree chopped into manageable pieces; it was a big tall pine that fell, looks like onto another tree in their back yard. Thankfully it did not fall on their house! The tree crew was moving pretty fast--there must be trees down all over the area, and they were looking pretty cheerful. They must be getting overtime for all this tree-felling.

We're under a tornado and flash-flood watch right now. Fay hasn't been bad; we lost power briefly last night, and we've had power surges and flickers, but mostly have had no interruption in service. It's been raining steadily since last night. The only thing I'm really worried about is how saturated the soil is, and the likelihood of one of our own tall trees coming down on the house. We've got a lot of tall trees. :/ They're nice to look at but are pretty big compared to the house.

Hubby and I both had to work all day yesterday, so of course the weather started getting bad right around 4. Of course. This has been kind of a week from hell--one of the kitties had an unfortunate problem which had turned out to be expensive (from the surgery) as well as messy and upsetting to all.


It's been busy as hell at work, too, which wasn't helpful. I was a gibbering wreck by the time they let us go yesterday. It's actually been kind of restful to be in the house and listen to the rain come steadily down. As long as it doesn't get IN the house, I'm doing great. :) However, I forgot one vital thing when we stopped at the supermarket yesterday, an essential hurricane supply: I forgot to stock up on booze. :( We're out of cider, but we might have some beer left. I am off to investigate.

ETA: The cat managed to tag me good when we were giving him his meds. He dug a claw into my arm, right above my wrist, and scored a hit on one of the big veins there--blood started pouring out and my husband freaked. It was just one little hole, though, pressure took care of it until I could get a bandage on. I wonder how many experience points I'm worth? The cat went up a level, I bet.

Supposedly this is coming to theaters in Europe in September...hope it makes it over here soon after!

Guess I should call my mom and find out if she's evacuating. She lives in Key West and just got back from vacation overseas--she might not even be completely unpacked yet. The storm track as they've projected so far will impact my mom, possibly a number of in-laws in the Tampa area (and Quillwing too--how close are you to the ocean, btw?) and then head right up towards us in the Big Bend. Great. Hubby's out in the garage looking over the plywood he got for the spate of hurricanes a couple of years ago and contemplating boarding up the windows. I hope it doesn't come to that.

Other than paying attention to the Tropical Update, it's been a nice, lazy weekend. Our anniversary was yesterday; we didn't go out, hubby hurt his back somehow and he took it easy, so we went out for brunch this morning. It was yummy, and I had two cups of cafe con leche--delicious! Hopefully I can get to bed tonight at a decent hour--tomorrow's going to be interesting.

We're back from Pennsic. God am I tired. We drove all day yesterday and today; the trip back home was not as bad as the trip up (we hit Atlanta at rush hour on the way up Friday before last--it took us TWO HOURS just to get through) and even Knoxville wasn't as bad. (James, what's up with that I-40/I-75 detour crap? It only seems to be northbound.)

We had an amazing time, even more fun than last year because we did stuff instead of just wandering around goggling. I will try to get some pics up tomorrow.

I couldn't stand not posting it, though I suspect I'll want to tweak it some more. But we're leaving for Pennsic on Friday morning, so I'm gonna be pretty much offline for the next week. Tweaking would have to be done after work tomorrow night (unlikely, since I mostly HAVEN'T PACKED YET) or when I get back. No computers in the Middle Ages, yo. We are staying in a hotel in Kentucky Friday night (we're driving this time) so if some horrible mistake suddenly registers as we drive through Middle America, I have a last chance to fix it before I land in another fandom. (SCA is a fandom, yes? It's certainly geeky enough.) Will take lots of pictures, promise.

Hope the chapter satisfies in the short run. Next chapter should be fun to write, so hopefully will go swiftly once I'm back to the current century.

This video turned me into a pile of goo:



I got shown this at work yesterday, and started tearing up just as our director walked by. Oops! Hopefully we minimized the window and faked got working quick enough that she didn't notice. I watched it again when I got home, that's when I melted. D'AWWWW!!

This morning I finished the archery bag I started a couple of months ago...I still need a drawstring, but it's done. Hubby is out working on the car; we're driving to Pennsic this time, which will be a day & a half drive hauling a trailer with our little Honda, so he's overhauling a couple of things. The car will be in top shape for the drive.

It doesn't look like we're going out to the park to watch fireworks tonight, but then rain looks very likely anyway. What I'm hoping is that he finishes with the car early enough that we can work on 1) the boots he's making for himself and 2) the shift and peplos I'm making for myself. All of those are two-people jobs for the measuring parts, especially since we've never done these before. I'll probably be burned out on sewing pretty quick and be ready to work on writing the rest of the weekend.

I'm actually kind of bummed about the rumor that Inuyasha is going to end in just two chapters. That's not near enough time to wrap everything up, WTH Takahashi? Dozens of story arcs about Tessaiga that took hundreds of chapters to get through, and TWO CHAPTERS to wrap up the whole series??? *is grumpy*

Well, obviously if it's true I won't be finishing up my derivative work before the canon story is over. Though I did make progress today! About 2,000-2,500 words that I'm pretty happy with on the next chapter--I rewrote a good portion of what I had before and added quite a lot. I'm contemplating whether I should make one really long chapter (since I've been such a sluggard on this) or simultaneously release two chapters of the length I'm comfortable with. This would necessitate holding on to the first chap until I'm done with the second. Usually when I'm done with one I want to shove it out the nest right away and be done with it, so maybe doing it that way would force me into more diligence with the second. Certainly, winning a Fanguild award (Best A/A yay!!!!) has lit a fire under my butt, since obviously people are still interested in reading it! Sorry sorry sorry. I just couldn't get into writing for a while. At this stage in the story it's pretty dark (not darkfic dark, just dark for me), and I don't know, I can write that if I'm in a good mood, but am completely turned off by it when I'm already down. I must be doing better. :) Earlier this year I was unhappy about other stuff going on in my life, and then getting doped up after finally having foot surgery did nothing, nothing I tell you, for my creative process. Kids, don't take Vicodin unless you have to, it's really boring. I spent a week at home sleeping, alternated with watching election coverage. That should tell you something.

By the way, while the foot still hurts a bit, I think it's going to be much better. I'm still limping but it beats having that freaking heel spur. I just wish I could have taken more than a week to stay out of work. I struggled with crutches for a couple of weeks and limped around when my hands and arms hurt worse than the foot, but my job still involves way too much standing and walking for comfort. The doc said I should be recovered in about 4 weeks if I stay off the foot, 6-7 weeks if I'm on it. Surgery will be 5 weeks ago on Tuesday...not completely recovered yet. :(

There are no SCA events between now and Pennsic, which means the weekends will be good for writing and won't be hijacked for trips to the 16th century. I mean it's fun and all, but my husband has completely immersed himself in it and will, like, DIE if he misses a tournament. All his hard work has really paid off, though--he came in FOURTH in a Kingdom rapier tournament the other week. This was in a field of 30-35 competitors from all over the state, some of whom are very experienced, and he's only been playing with swords for less than a year. O_O We're going to have an awesome time in August at Pennsic!

I got about a thousand words written yesterday. The RL issue I've been dealing with is sort of semi-resolved at this point, so I can think of other things, like the next chapter of Okaeri. I'm going to work on it some more today, hopefully, in between doing the two tons of laundry and other assorted housework. The words aren't flowing very easily...I know where it needs to go, but the getting there is the thing. So what I did was about a thousand words of very rough draft. At least it's there, so I have something to go back and edit.

Saw two movies recently, Leatherheads this past Friday and The Other Boleyn Girl last week. That's the most movies I've seen in the last few months! They were both pretty good but rather lightweight, the Leatherheads movie particularly. George Clooney is cute as always, and the subject is of interest to me--not so much football as period pieces set in the 1920's and 1930's. I have no idea if the depiction was accurate, but if it was, pro football has certainly come a long way.

The Boleyn movie had more heft to it, if only because the subject matter involved people getting their heads cut off, but still dealt heavily in sex and relationships as opposed to politics and outer-world ramifications...I enjoyed all the court intrigue. (One can tell if something is a chick flick when all the previews are for movies you could never drag a guy to. You would have to pay me to go see "Mamma Mia"--wtf is that.) I enticed  my hubby into going to this on the premise that we could check out how historically accurate the costuming was. (Pretty accurate, actually.) The movie gets a thumbs up from both of us. The story of Mary Boleyn was so interesting, in fact, that when we got home I did a lot of Wikipedia hopping to find out some background material. Alas, it seems that while the costumes were accurate, the script took some liberties. That's entertainment, I suppose.

ETA: Just heard of Young@Heart. Nothing like hearing a bunch of 70-80 year olds singing Ramones & David Bowie--cute!