Solon....braindeath....
.....3326 words. 3326 words, you fucker. *dies* If I never see the word Solon again it'll be too soon. I think some of the end of it was drivel, but I've ceased to care now.
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.....3326 words. 3326 words, you fucker. *dies* If I never see the word Solon again it'll be too soon. I think some of the end of it was drivel, but I've ceased to care now.
Ajax essay done, weighing in at a mere 2700 words. Oh yeah, I rock. *punches air in sad and geeky manner*
The lure of Final Fantasy is great....it tempted away from my history reading this evening. I now have Bahamut, having whupped him and the ruby dragons so easily it was embarrassing. Doomtrain, man, he's the *best*! Cast status attacks on the fuckers and then just beat the crap out of them! I think I'm off to find some demis, then I'm going after Eden. I will admit no defeat....I am inwincible.... *can see Nemesis hovering over self with big mallet for hubristic behaviour* *hits self around head for having read too much Sophocles today*
So, nee-sama's finals started today. I'm kinda glad - the revision process seems to have been going on forever, and I'm surprised she's not out of her mind with boredom by now. I went down to exam schools with her this morning, which necessitated getting up at the ungodly hour of 8am. At least, it would have. But you know I was saying I was more stressed than she was about these? I managed to wake myself up with stressing twice during the night >_< At one point I woke up, was convinced my alarm had gone off, got up, washed, started getting dressed....then realised it was 5.10am. ^_^;;;;;;;; Damn, I hate my subconscious. Kinda helps balance the fact that I think it hates me.
....and for anyone interested, she seems fairly positive about the exams, so *that's* okay ^_____^ Two down, six to go....
Right, I think I had better go fiddle with an mp3 update, or the peeps at nee-sama's site will be getting restive. Yeah, so I should be reading about Solonian legal reforms, but frankly I read about it for five hours today, I can't face any more....
I swear, I'm acting more worried about her exams than she is. Meh. Vicarious neuroses, yay.
So, last night, for the first time, I caved to the pressure and watched Eurovision. >_@ Why, god, why did you make Europe this way? Why does the closest thing we have to an international cultural exhibition have to be such complete and unending crap? I spent a large proportion of the time fervently hoping that no one in any other country outside Europe watches it....then read Leareth's blog, and that spoiled that little ray of sunshine. I think Austria had the right idea, to be honest - send in an entry so *unremittingly* crap that *no one* could think they meant it seriously.
Of course, the pain of Eurovision was dulled by watching it with half the Ass no Ryu, with copious quantities of curry and cheap alcohol ^____^ And lo, there was much mockage. There are few things more fun than watching the camp male backing dancers at Eurovision while mildly drunk. Though I though Estonia should *so* have done better than they did - it was about the only sing that didn't actively burn my ears. Mind you, that could have just been because I was desentised by the unbelievable horror of our entry this year, after which someone strangling cats in a bag would have been tuneful. Man, how do we let these people get through the selection process??
(On a somewhat random sidenote, one of my friends from Pusey is planning to enter 'A Song for Wales' next year, which selects the song for the Pan Celtic Festival. How cool is that? ^_^)
And, after Eurovision, there was the anime watching. And lo, we did mock that also. Well, we were watching Sonic X, which is so damn crap it's fantastic. Especially playing 'spot the cross-species yaoi'. We decided Tails is everyone's uke, while Knuckles is the strong and silent seme type, but secretly yearns after Sonic, who is blissfully oblivious to the whole situation. This then led onto the discussion of certain logistical problems in the positioning of hedgehog slash, but Lizzu informs me that hedgehog spines lie down quite nice and flat when they're not curled up, so that at least means Knuckles wouldn't be disembowled at an inconvenient moment.
....yeah, we're sick and wrong. You're point is?
We then watched the first episode of Ultraviolet ^____^ I love Ultraviolet. Go and look at my very first blog entry for proof. Damn you, British television industry, why didn't you recommission it? Because of you I've been spending most of my way trying to think of a good plot for a second season fanfic, rather than thinking about my essay on Sophocles. Damn you and all your kind.
On that note, I should probably go work. Meh. Knoxian heroes and Taplinian stagecraft, coming up....
Why is that in order to play Final Fantasy decently you actually have to work at it??! Not fair! I'm trying to beat Seifer....so I'm trying to get a couple of really good GFs...so I'm trying to get Eden....but to do that I have to fight lots of nasty dragons....so I'm trying to get *other* good GFs to fight the dragons with....to do that I need to collect lots of random things.....to do that I need to learn to mug monsters....to do that Shitbag has to learn to mug things....and to do that I need to do enough fighting to get up to Shitbag's target of 200. Taking....so....long....brain....no longer functioning....
Oh, shut up. Just because I'm crappy and cannot think about anything but Final Fantasy today. I tried to do some work in the Bod this afternoon, but my mind was full of GFs, as a result of which I got distracted by Theognis and only read some sources and an article in 3 hours. >_< I suck. Thank God I don't actually have to get any of it finished quite yet. Come Monday or Tuesday and I may be regretting this relaxed attitude.
I think I need to go and formulate an email I don't want to write. Ass no Ryu members may remember what I mean. Ugh.
Then I'll beta my Eroica transcripts and send them off.
Then maybe I'll get some fic done. Or read about Archaic Sparta. So much to do....
H.I.G.H.E.R..B.R.A.I.N..F.U.N.C.T.I.O.N.S............S.U.S.P.E.N.D.E.D
N.O.R.M.A.L..S.E.R.V.I.C.E..W.I.L.L..B.E..R.E.S.U.M.E.D..
S.H.O.R.T.L.Y.............................................................................
P.L.E.A.S.E..S.T.A.N.D..B.Y..........................................................
Have been bitten by Getbackers plot bunnies, much to my surprise. I wasn't expecting it to be a series that caused much by way of fic activity, which only goes to show that inspiration has a weird sense of humour. I have the vague emotional feel for a fic, which is often the way strange little vignettes start. It's just Ban-chan and Dr Jackal, stuck somewhere together, and Dr Jackal being bored and deciding to piss Ban off. ^___^ If you've ever read 'A Gentlemanly Conversation' by Leareth, then you'll know the kind of atmosphere I'm aiming for. Except Ban is a lot less polite than Tatsumi would ever dream of being.
For which fic, I would appreciate any input from our resident GetBackers expert, particularly on the subject of backstories. Do we know anything about Jackal's backstory? What do we know about Ban's? Don't worry about spoilering me, I don't mind. I especially want to know about those 'akuma!' flashbacks he was having in ep 12. Any info would be greatly appreciated ^_^
Other than that, have done little today - singing, yadda yadda. Andrew, Tim would very much like to get in touch with any tenor who might be willing to sing with us ^_^. Want to email him, or do you want me to give him your address so he can mail you?
*fumes* Raijin and Fujin are less than the dust beneath my chariot wheels, but Seifer....
*growwwwwls*
So, one impromptu London trip for manga buying purposes later, and life is back to normal. Except now I have more Eroica than any sentient being could ever want, along with Night Head volume 2, and volume 1 of CCD on the grounds that one can never have too much random CLAMP. Mmmm, manga...
Parents came up to hear Evensong today ^_____^ This shouldn't make me as chirpy as it does. I dunno, I know they haven't *purposefully* not bothered to come and see me, but I have been here nearly two years now and they've never come up, when we only live an hour away. It's hard not to take it a little bit to heart. But lo, they came, they heard, they bought me dinner at Quod with genuine nutrients in it. And my mother made me bread pudding, so I know they love me really ^_^
Since which I have been playing FF8 again. Should really have been doing something creative, but never mind...
There are only so many times I can get my ass whupped by bloody Raijin and Fujin without losing all self respect. Yes, don't tell me Katy, I need to go and level-up. I *know* I need to go and level up. But I get soooo bored with fighting random moon monsters! Damnit, I just want an apocalyptic GF, is that really so much to ask? And if bloody Fujin casts Pain on me *one more time*....
*coughs*
So...yeah. The essay is finished, huzzah! 2972 words, ohhhh yeah. And if I remember the words of the sage Robin Lane Fox correctly, he wasn't going to set us an essay next week. ^________^ That means I only have to do reading and two commentaries! Lots of time for fic and games and other fun things!
Andrew - sorry I didn't email you back about that Classics questions - only just found it ^_^;;;;; I'm afraid I'm not amazingly good on the technicalities of the productions - it's not something I ever really covered in tutes. I would imagine they'd have to get up and down from the skene by means of a ladder at the back, ungainly as that might seem. Don't take it as *too* read that Philoktetes' cave was on top of the skene though - that could make the problems of staging considerably worse. Given that the only internal place in the play is the cave, it'd seem odd not to locate it in the skene building itself, no matter what indications of height there are in the text. You can equally well argue that you need to use your imagination for the height of the cave. That would get round the problem of so many people having to go into and out of it - they could just walk into the skene building.
That probably didn't make much sense, did it? Sorry to non-Classicists, and also to Andrew for writing such a vague answer. I woke up at 2.30am thinking 'hmmm, Carian helmets...', so I don't know that I'm in much of a fit mental state for...well, life, really...
*contented smile* *pets commentors* You see, that wasn't so hard, now was it?
To take up Katy's comment - yes, Sandman doth rock muchly, hence the layout here ^_^ Dream is one of my favourite characters in anything - if only they'd draw him a little more bishie. *sighs* I know, I know, I'm shallow, but he's such a bishounen! Every time he's described in the text he's always said to be incredibly beautiful, but they never portray him like that in the pictures. Which annoys me. Been spoiled by too many pretty manga men, methinks.
*coughs* Where was I. Yes, you can borrow more, with my blessing - it's nice to have people to Sandman ramble to ^_^ I think Liz has volume 2 at the moment, though the concept of 'linear narrative' never really seems to apply to Sandman. I've been rereading volume 6, and it's full of little side-stories that could have taken place at any point in the last six thousand years or so. Still, there may be some references that make more sense when one reads it in approaching the correct order.
I'd really love to write Sandman fic at some point, but it's one of those series I really don't want to spoil by playing with it too much. You need to be Neil Gaiman to play in that sandbox (no pun intended). There's a little snippet floating around in my head about Hob Gadling and Daniel the next time they were due to meet, and another one about the Corinthian, and yet a third about the Cluracan (who would *so* be voiced by Miki Shinichirou in an anime version ^____^) - but I don't quite dare write any of them, because I know I wouldn't be able to do the series justice. It's a damned frustrating situation.
So instead I shall condemn my brain to hoplite reforms and the rise of tyranny. Guaranteed to sap any creative impulses I may ever have had.
Guh. It's a good thing I'm typing this rather than speaking it, I don't think I'd make it to the end otherwise. My voice is frankly shitty at the moment. I mean, yes, granted, I've done a lot of singing today. Pretty extensive solos in the Mozart mass this morning and the Gibbon canticles this evening. But my voice wasn't in the best of moods before I started. It's got that nasty low-grade lurg feeling about it, so it hasn't been quite right for a while now. Meh. This is upsetting. I don't want to do it any permanent damage....
So, today has been mostly devoted to music, as per most Sundays. Pusey, lunch, reading, service, essay - that's been my day, pretty much. The essay is once again crappy but finished, so that's nice. Herodotus and nomoi, fun stuff. I didn't even get to write about the gold-digging ants. *pouts*
Nee-sama informs me the hits on this blog have been going up again (*waves little 'yay!' flag*), so I thought I at least ought to check in. Cinema last night was fun fun fun as usual with the scums - plus I got to see Phone Booth again ^____^ It rewatched surprisingly well, actually. One would think that a film that relied so heavily on tension and suspense would lose a lot of its impact once you already knew just what was going to happen. True, it wasn't quite so edge-of-the-seat tense as it was last time, but it still keeps a remarkable amount of its heart-pounding quality. That's always helped by the fact that it features a couple of real, genuine, good actors, which always comes as something of a shock in a Hollywood film. It's no wonder Colin Farrell is rising so astronomically at the moment - he's pretty *and* he can act. Something of a shocker.
Plus Keifer Sutherland has the sexiest voice this side of Japan ^__^ Oh, and the creepy UST. The creepy UST was fun too. Mmm, obsessive.
And to elaborate on that last entry for those people out there who aren't animesoc - Phinn brought goodies from Japan. *would put in another extensive smiley, but fears might get committed*. So I have a Getbackers folder which keeps earning me weird looks at the Bod, a Wolf's Rain shitajiki in an odd-but-cool art nouveaux kinda style, and A DOCTOR JACKAL SHITAJIKI!!! Ahhhhhhh! *huggles the plastic bishounen* He's soooo cool! He's voiced by Tomo! He pervs on Ginji! He has a huge hat and a big black coat and many many knives! Wheeeee! *pets*
....oh, stop looking at me like that. You should know what to expect by now. You expect me to like the well-balanced characters?
Think that's about the majority of the interesting stuff in my life at the moment. Robin Lane Fox likes my perfume, Lucifer still rule my world in the mp3 stakes, the weather could really do with deciding whether it's spring or summer, and I really want a couple of good lie-ins with no essays. Two a week is not much fun. Especially when Narsus and Tasuki keep giving me evils for not random-yaoi-generator-ficcing them. Meh.
Oh, and one more thing - comment on my blog, you lazy lot! *scowls* Nee-sama has less entries than me, and 30 more comments. This is *so* unfair.
....can't be bothered to blog. Comatose. Phinn is god.
The end.
For those as care, I just did a fic update ^_^ Two new chapters of the Sanc Academy AU 'Otherways', up at avernus. Enjoy! And send feedback!
....bastards. *pouts*
*punches air* Ohhh yeah, it is good to be the king! For lo, the essay was written, and it was - well, okay, not *good*, but *finished*, which is about as much as I ever ask from my essays.
I now get to read my random book on Aristeas of Proconnesus, who seems a really cool bloke who went wandering off towards the Caucasus mountains in the 7th century BC looking for the Hyperboreans and came back with stories of gryphons and men with eyes in the middle of their foreheads. It's really interesting from the point of view of comparative anthropology and the aural tradition, since it has random little snippets of Chinese and Scythian folktales in it, and other fun things. Okay, so we only have about 12 lines of his poetry of which about 6 may well be spurious, but *still*. I think he sounds rather a nice chap, if a touch too interested in Apollo for his own good. Maybe he even made it to China.
I've been learning to use IRC. Very badly and very slowly and with nee-sama leaning over my shoulder to tell me what to type, but it's a start. The internet may not be my bitch boy (unlike for some people) but I'm trying. Managed to queue the Petshop of Horrors OST, which was something of a triumph, as it's rare as anything. The person who we're queueing from also has the 3rd and 4th Arislan OSTs, so I'm going to try to get them sometime. ^_^ Mmmmm, Arislan music....
Oh, and also awwwww. Ken and Ethan are *so* cute. I just wish they were the canon couple instead of Ken and bloody Suoh. Suoh's okay, but Ethan is *so* much cuter. Mind you, I also think Ethan/Killian is the cutest thing in the world, so I guess one has to make a choice here sometime.
....Ethan/Killian/Ken?
*sighs* Maybe not. It's still annoying that Ethan has to be all mopey and heart-broken just because Ken is screwed up. Never mind, maybe more Ethan/Killian will set matters aright. I'm off to fic edit ^_^
Oh - damn, better blog about film last night. X2, and like virtually everyone else on the net I really rather enjoyed it. The experience greatly enhanced by having an X Men geek sitting next to me squeaking every time an extraneous minor mutant came into it. And I also squeakethed muchly when I saw Peter Wingfield in it. Peter Wingfield! *makes gleeful hands* And he's looking all young again, bless his heart! Ohhh, I so miss him as Methos. He ruled. The only good thing about Highlander ever. Ian McKellan also rocked muchly (well duh, he's *Ian McKellan*. What's not to love? *mental note: must watch Gods and Monsters again*), as did Pyro, and Nightcrawler is forever endeared to me by that opening scene. Oh, and Mystique is an evil manipulative bitch, huzzah. The bad guys are always *so* much better than the good guys....
Heh. Isn't it nice when a random bit of Classics synchronises perfectly and oddly serendipitously with something you're interested in?
Don't know how many people reading this have read enough Sandman to understand, but here goes. Dream tends to be accompanied by ravens - or more precisely, ravens who used to be people. Matthew, the current raven, asks periodically what happens to the ravens if they ever want to quit, and if they can ever be human again. Dream says that one of his ravens became human again for a while, because he thought he wanted to, and this raven was the poet Aristeas of Marmara. This is the raven who appears with Dream when he visits the Emperor Augustus in the comic, and when Dream explains to the bewildered Augustus that he isn't Apollo, but because he's associated with poets he often gets mistaken for him.
What has this to do with classics, I hear you ask? Well, I just ran across these bits in Herodotus:
'Aristeas...a native of Proconnesus [an island in the Sea if Marmara], says in the course of his poem that he was possessed by Apollo.... Two hundred and forty years after the disappearance of Aristeas....as the Metapontines affirm, he apeared to them in their own country in person, and ordered them to set up an altar in honour of Apollo, and to place near it a statue to be called that of Aristeas the Proconnesian. Apollo, he told them, had honoured them alone of the Italiotes with his presence; and he himself accompanied the god at the time, not however in his present form, but in the shape of a raven.'
Isn't serendity a lovely thing?
It doesn't really go very far on getting my essay on Greek Colonization written though. I really will try to get enough done that I can go to the cinema in the evening, but I really can't promise anything. I don't have a whole heap of time tomorrow, between lectures and tute and choirs. Meh. Sorry guys, I suck.
I have nothing to blog about.
No, really.
At least, there are plenty of things I *could* blog about, but they've mainly been covered by certain people, which could frankly get dull. Mayday was its usual Oxford wonderful self, with obscenely early start (4.30am... @_@ That's a time that would never exist if God was really kind and loving....), poor trebles from the Magdalene college choir as always, and much random stuff. Watching it with the usual suspects was good fun, and the bridge was rather less of a crush than I remember it being last year - think the police were getting paranoid all over the place. I got my annual sprig of Lily of the Valley, so my luck will now hold good for another year ^_^ There were also morris dancers, but sadly no stealth ninja morris dancers with black bells and hankies like there were last year. Maybe they were off on an assassination mission, or something else of international importance. Breakfast at Macdonalds (perfectly balanced between the four main food groups - salt, fat, sugar, and burnt crunchy bits), then - ahahaha - off to my Ancient History class.
Have I blogged about my new Ancient History tutor yet? Probably not, for lo my blogging hath suckethed muchly of late. I blame the essays. And the work. And the brainmelt. And the lack of sleep. And the Laguna (no, I still haven't finished it, for lo I sucketh at FFVIII as well as blogging). In any case, I have a new tutor, who is alarmingly intelligent and is teaching me about colonisation in the 8th century BC and other fun subjects. He's also (vicarious showing off coming up) advising on the new Alexander the Great movie that's coming out next year sometime, so if I ever want to distract him I just have to ask about that and he goes off on a spiel about 'yes, and when I was having lunch with Colin Farrell the other week - an extraordinarily dull man, you know....'
So...yeah. Where was I. Right, Ancient History tute, lecture, general trying-to-stay-awake-and-read-Greek-ness for a couple of hours, then the kerfuffle that was the first animesoc meeting of term. Most people reading will already know the story, but suffice it to say that Tasha's room does not make the best venue for installing twenty or so people to watch random new anime. At least the anime was good - really want to see more of Matantei Loki - Ragnorak, and not *just* because it has Miki-san playing a guy who seems alarmingly like a comedy version of Riff from Count Cain. Also wanting to see more of Last Exile, which felt a little like Gundam On Earth, and featured much Miyazaki-style prettiness. Anne, if you're reading this, I recommend it. Also Getbackers and Wolf's Rain continue to be uber-cool, and D N Angel continues to be slashier than a very slashy thing. Ickle Eriol/Muraki hybrid kid is fan*tas*tic.
Friday. What did happen on Friday. Oh yes, got too little sleep owing to playing FFVIII until too late (or possibly early), then had to get up for lecture, so somewhat sleep deprived. Lecture, lunchtime music recital by a friend which was a nice change of pace, lunch with music people, Bodleian, reading, blah blah. Stayed working in the Bod until about 7, when Tasha and I decided to go have pizza, since the words were beginning to swim in front of my eyes. Pizza was....pizza-ish (mmm....nutrients...), then met up with the other scums for cinema. They dragged me not *quite* kicking and screaming into Welcome to Collinwood (which I thought looked shite), only succeeding because I was pacified by chocolate raisons. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting - even vaguely amusing in a couple of places - and the entire thing was redeemed by the BMW advert shortfilm at the beginning, with Gary Oldman as the (gay) devil. Featured the best line in the world: 'You don't like *girls* do you? You don't know what you're missing!' *falls off chair laughing* Must...download...
Then to Tasha's for anime and further crap talking, until 3.30am. Then staggered home for sleep, before dragging myself out of bed again at 9 so I could get a reasonable morning's work done at the Bod. Damn them for closing at 1pm on Saturdays. That does *not* get my essays written. So... Bod until 1, quick sandwich, college library until 4.30, coffee with nee-sama, back here....think that brings me up to date. Ugh, sorry, I hate writing blogs which are just 'I did that, then I did that', but I think I needed to get caught up. I will try to do some interesting analysing blog bits sometime soon, but at the moment I have brain melt through cumulative sleep deprivation, and I need to go read for my Aristophanes essay.
Mrfle.
Oh, and if you haven't seen the latest episode of Weebl and Bob, go see it now. It's rather more amusing than this blog entry, though admittedly so is colonoscopy. 'Look at my lovely hat.......'