oh, holidays
Dec. 27th, 2010 01:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
metonomiaWell, the last few days have been super busy, and I thought about posting about it all in depth, but meh, that would be even more teal deer than this will already be, and I'm lazy. So I'll just do bullet points.
- NFFR's Secret Santa Exchange! We've begun posting the works, and people have been getting great stuff so far.
- YULETIDE. OH, YULETIDE. I got not one but two gifts, and they are both exquisite and glorious and super awesome, and you should all go read them and tell the author(s?) how awesome they are.
Five Futures Kassandra Saw, and One that She Could Not, a really perfect look at Kassandra and Andromache and Helen in the lead up to and aftermath of Troy, a Bechdel Test A+ that still integrates their relationships to the men around them, and ends suprisingly hopefully while still maintaining that wonderful agonizing doooom of the Trojan women.
On Howliday, a Magic School Bus fic in which Arnold REALLY wishes he'd stayed home today, of course :D The kids and the Friz are all exceedingly perfect, and I just want more of this!
- Christmas! It was fun, the lead-up was good, with much hanging out with church friends (and a shocking lack of drama there, for which I am very grateful and which is owed mainly, I think, to the existence of chocolate fudge sauce and peppermint schnaps), lots of music, and very little familial annoyance.
- My darling, annoying, wonderful little brother gave me the entire Megan Whalen Turner series :) So I read them yesterday. It was awesome, seriously. I kind of skimmed through The Thief since I'd read it already, and then in between chatting with aunts and uncles and cousins and a lot of eating, I just kept reading. I realllllly love her characters, and I was especially glad to get a better look at more than just Gen, who is awesome but continues to annoy me somewhat, whereas Attolia and Eddis and Costis and Sophos interest me a bit more. And I am in awe of her style - I'm sure it's not unique to her but I can't immediately think of anywhere else I've seen it. Normally we know things as the main character(s) learn them, but Turner continually tells us that our main character knows something or is up to something or is having this or that conversation, but we have to wait to see the outcome, and it's really brilliant, and often not easy to guess what's happening. I'm really hoping that maybe she'll write more here? I'll have to Google it, I suppose, but this simultaneously seems like a complete series and yet one that could totally be continued. Definitely she should work with this world more, because quasi-ancient-Greek worlds are, apparently, one of my greatest literary loves. Al
- And then one of my bffs got me The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which you'd think I'd have read by now, but I hadn't. But now I have! And it is wonderful, and makes me want to watch HP7 again.
- The internet here is utter crap. My dad has finally stopped blaming my computer/my computer's lack of connection to the home network, and our new theory is that squirrels are maybe eating at the wiring around here. But the internet works fine when no one else is on the computer! rawr
- Basically, vacation has been good, but I'm ready to go back. Now's where I curse on-campus housing and the fact that I cannot get back into my dorm until January 2.
- Still haven't seen the Doctor Who Christmas Carol, but I'm hoping to get to that tonight or tomorrow, depending, obviously, on relative internet fail.
- My great-aunt died on Christmas Eve. She's been getting weaker since my grandfather (her brother) died 7 years ago, and especially since my grandma died last year, and she was really doing okay mentally and all, but then she fell and broke her hip and just, they couldn't do anything except pain control. So it really sucked, but both her sons were there through it, and her niece and nephews, my dad and his siblings, got to be together when they heard the news, which I know really helped them. But seriously, God, could we take a break from the close family deaths? Please?
- NFFR's Secret Santa Exchange! We've begun posting the works, and people have been getting great stuff so far.
- YULETIDE. OH, YULETIDE. I got not one but two gifts, and they are both exquisite and glorious and super awesome, and you should all go read them and tell the author(s?) how awesome they are.
Five Futures Kassandra Saw, and One that She Could Not, a really perfect look at Kassandra and Andromache and Helen in the lead up to and aftermath of Troy, a Bechdel Test A+ that still integrates their relationships to the men around them, and ends suprisingly hopefully while still maintaining that wonderful agonizing doooom of the Trojan women.
On Howliday, a Magic School Bus fic in which Arnold REALLY wishes he'd stayed home today, of course :D The kids and the Friz are all exceedingly perfect, and I just want more of this!
- Christmas! It was fun, the lead-up was good, with much hanging out with church friends (and a shocking lack of drama there, for which I am very grateful and which is owed mainly, I think, to the existence of chocolate fudge sauce and peppermint schnaps), lots of music, and very little familial annoyance.
- My darling, annoying, wonderful little brother gave me the entire Megan Whalen Turner series :) So I read them yesterday. It was awesome, seriously. I kind of skimmed through The Thief since I'd read it already, and then in between chatting with aunts and uncles and cousins and a lot of eating, I just kept reading. I realllllly love her characters, and I was especially glad to get a better look at more than just Gen, who is awesome but continues to annoy me somewhat, whereas Attolia and Eddis and Costis and Sophos interest me a bit more. And I am in awe of her style - I'm sure it's not unique to her but I can't immediately think of anywhere else I've seen it. Normally we know things as the main character(s) learn them, but Turner continually tells us that our main character knows something or is up to something or is having this or that conversation, but we have to wait to see the outcome, and it's really brilliant, and often not easy to guess what's happening. I'm really hoping that maybe she'll write more here? I'll have to Google it, I suppose, but this simultaneously seems like a complete series and yet one that could totally be continued. Definitely she should work with this world more, because quasi-ancient-Greek worlds are, apparently, one of my greatest literary loves. Al
- And then one of my bffs got me The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which you'd think I'd have read by now, but I hadn't. But now I have! And it is wonderful, and makes me want to watch HP7 again.
- The internet here is utter crap. My dad has finally stopped blaming my computer/my computer's lack of connection to the home network, and our new theory is that squirrels are maybe eating at the wiring around here. But the internet works fine when no one else is on the computer! rawr
- Basically, vacation has been good, but I'm ready to go back. Now's where I curse on-campus housing and the fact that I cannot get back into my dorm until January 2.
- Still haven't seen the Doctor Who Christmas Carol, but I'm hoping to get to that tonight or tomorrow, depending, obviously, on relative internet fail.
- My great-aunt died on Christmas Eve. She's been getting weaker since my grandfather (her brother) died 7 years ago, and especially since my grandma died last year, and she was really doing okay mentally and all, but then she fell and broke her hip and just, they couldn't do anything except pain control. So it really sucked, but both her sons were there through it, and her niece and nephews, my dad and his siblings, got to be together when they heard the news, which I know really helped them. But seriously, God, could we take a break from the close family deaths? Please?
