Avernus

Things I learned while reading about the imagery of Lucretius, sitting in Christ Church meadows next to the Cherwell:

1. Punts and pedalows do not mix. Especially when spazzy pedalow users (we do not approve, they make too much noise for the Oxford ambience) pedal too hard and can't turn bends properly, and punter gets pole stuck in overhead branches when trying to escape from the lure of the bank.

2. Squirrels are among the most comic creatures ever, and are far more entertaining than Lucretius and even Seth.

3. People making merry after their mods/finals finish in large drunken groups do not a happy us make.

4. But spazzy cheerful dogs do.

5. Ducks are truly sinister. Or possibly just traumatising. @_@ And there aren't nearly as many gay ones around as there should be, or not on the Cherwell there aren't anyway (probably all buggered off the St Anne's, which seems to be the duck equivalent of Wadham and Gomorrah.) I don't care if it's mating season, that wasn't something I needed to see on a Monday afternoon.

6. If there's any truth in reincarnation, I really really don't want to come back as a female duck. >_<

Can't say how much Lucretius actually made an impact, but hey, can't have everything. And now my eyes hurt. Can't decide if it's the over-long waking hours, the unaccustomed sunlight (it burns....) or if I've got some random hayfever offshoot (which would seem odd, as I didn't think there even *was* a pollen count yet...). Mmph. Only two essays to read for and one to write in the next two days, *no* problem.

First week has beaten me round the head.

Posted by Calliope at 12:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Internet connection has been on-and-off fucked for about the last three days, a situation I am growing increasingly weary about. I don't ask a great deal from my computer - okay, scratch that, I probably do, what with the amount of random crappy programs I've got lurking on it for no apparent reason, and subfolders I discover which contain 40 episodes of CCS (yes, one *can* have 40 eps of a show on one's computer and not know about it), not to mention stupid numbers of Tori Amos mp3s and far too many downloads. But damnit, my laptops respect me, nay, they even love me! They do what I want them to and do not answer back! NTL is corrupting my baby... *sobs*

So, little internet, no messenger, no regular email (which is something of a problem when I'm trying to negotiate room bookings for anime soc this week...). Also, collection this morning and yesterday morning. Can't really complain though, as both collections were reasonably non-painful - probably not First quality, but nothing really shameful, or at least I hope not. Also, today has been a beautiful beautiful sunny day which I spent largely lazing around in Christ Church meadows with various scums, talking rubbish, which was lovely. I don't care that I have two essays for next week, I refuse to work after so many days of revision. It's not natural.

Also making me chipper this evening is Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (why are Socrates and Billy the Kid trying to make me write slash fic about them?! Why??!! My brain, my poor brain...must...resist...), and Knight Rider. Of which I just bought a DVD. The glee is only *slightly* outweighed by the shame, so I am gleeful indeed ^_^ It has the ep where Kitt gets reprogrammed and tries to kill Michael and Michael gives him a big 'you're *my* car!' speech. Well, *one* of the episodes where that happened. Quality shit. Also contains the pilot episode where some poor bastard gets shot in the face and wakes up looking like David Hasselhoff. Oh the humanity...

mmf. Right, sleep. Time to kick back into term-time mode.

Posted by Calliope at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I dreamed a good idea for a Borges/Neil Gaiman-esque short story the other night. There's a Borges short story, one of my absolute favourites by him (and, incidentally, if there's anyone out there who hasn't read Borges, then go and do so now, he's wonderful), which is about a poet in some unspecified semi-mythical past who writes the greatest and most beautiful poem he can, and then practises his craft and perfects his skills and writes another, only this one is only a couple of lines long, but so exquisitely pared down and polished that it's a finer work than the last. And then he goes away and practises his craft and perfects his skill and finally writes a poem which is only a single word long, but that word is the essence of all beauty and all poetry, the most perfect thing ever written.

My dream took a similar sort of premise, but the word was the essence of all that was terrible in the world, all pain and death and destruction and sorrow. The story followed two immortal creatures, the last of a race which had been wiped out by the power of this word, who have vowed to destroy it. I'm not entirely certain where the plot goes after that (what, you want coherence as well as set up from dreams? Not from my dreams you don't...), but I really want to try writing it some time ^_^

The immortals were really slashy too :D

Other than that, I've been spending time with Katy and Nee-sama, watching Starsky and Hutch, giggling over the vase paintings in 'Greek Homosexuality' (a very influential book by Dover, in case you were wondering, and one which I've been intending to buy for ages and which I finally found a copy of in the Classics Bookshop on Turl Street for a very reasonable price...), and revising for these blasted Collections. Meh. I'm kinda annoyed about these collections - I've actually done all the work I was meant to do for them, and I've been working near flat-out throughout the holidays, but I know that it's not really going to show on my paper, since I've had too much work to do for any of it really to have sunk in. Reading for three papers is just too much for a holiday, it's not good. I really hope I only have a translation collection for Aeschylus, or I'm somewhat sunk >_<

Right, off to learn the entirety of fifth century Greek history now. No problem.

Posted by Calliope at 11:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

*happy sigh* Glad to be back in Oxford. Love my family as much as always, but after a few weeks one needs a break from the clucking ^_^ My parents have wandered off to Paris for the weekend, so I demanded to be returned to Oxford before they left. Needed to buy texts for collections (ugh ugh ugh ugh) and felt that leaving it until next Tuesday might be a *little* presumptuous.

Other than that, I've been reading Latin Authors, and watching a selection of crappy 70s shows with the Katyular and Lizzular units. For lo doth Starsky and Hutch kick *considerable* amounts of ass. I've also been listening to Radio 7 a certain amount, as it has Raffles and Cadfael adaptations. This is pleasing to me. Even though I strongly disapprove of the actor they've cast as poor Bunny. Not to put too find a point on it, he sounds like Dr Watson. Bunny should not sound like Doctor Watson. Bunny is at most 30 at the time of those particular stories, and a rather young thirty at that, as he himself admits. He's meant to look and sound almost foolishly innocent and naive, not all stolid and sensible and slightly middle-aged >_< I was not happy. Come back Christopher Strauli, all is forgiven. He's got that correct wide-eyed, innocent and completely lost look.

But then they added a couple of extra lines of Raffles/Bunny flirtation at the end, which helped to cheer me a little ^_^ Raffles/Bunny flirtation can usually be relied upon to cheer me...

Posted by Calliope at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I owe yet another debt of bishounen-related gratitude to Laura for recommending my new trash show for the season - Kyou Kara Maoh! It's full of bishounen! Lots of bishounen!! It's like Saint Beast only with a bigger animation budget and an *occasional* swipe at a plot!!! I love it!!!!

Essentially, it's Fushigi Yuugi with a male Miaka. Oh yes. Your average baseball-playing boy gets sucked through a toilet (yes, you heard) into another world, where it is revealed by an ever-expanding circle of bishounen acquaintances that he is, in fact, the demon king, sent to another world for his own safety, who now has to return and fight humans. But hey, who's watching for the plot?

I had a merry time trying to screen-cap this, as it seems to be in some horrifically new xvid codec which *nothing* else likes. VirtualDub was having kittens quietly. But I persevered! (And also Ivan's rather good at such matters ^_^;;;) So for your delectation, my latest crop of bishounen. I don't include the main character, he's only there for contrast ^_^ So! We have Conrad, who turns up on a horse and does the patented Tamahome/Oscar 'first-bishounen contact' act, which means he's likely to be slashiest with the main character in the long run. Except he's rather sweeter and less bolshie than either Tamahome or Oscar to start off with, and he may well have had a thing for the main character's mum at some point. Specialises in looking supportive but faintly melancholy.

Then we have Gunther (yes, I know, he can't help the name). That shot comes from the title sequence - isn't it lovely when you're first introduced to a bishie by means of flowing silver hair and flying rose petals? Devoted side-kick with a tendency to worry that His Majesty will catch cold, to enthuse over His Majesty's wardrobe, and to make speeches like this. Camp as a row of pink tents. Lizzu already likes him.

After which, my current personal favourite - Gwendal. Yes, I know that's probably worse than Gunther. Leave him alone. He's evil looking, responded to meeting the new King by making nice with his horse and asking 'what is *this*?' about the King, and quite obviously has an angsty backstory of country-destroying proportions. Well, in my head he does. He's had a total of about two lines of dialogue, and (as Nee-sama pointed out) he's got an alarming case of a YnM anime chin, but despite these mitigating factors he's winning so far. Largely because he has the looks and personality of a bastard lovechild of Clavis and Julious. Heee. Specialises in looking like something smells really bad.

And then there's pint-sized Allen Schezar. Oh yes. Or, possibly, Allen and Tohma's bastard love-child. Take a line through the hair, the eyes, the swordsmanship and the outfit, and you can rather see where I'm coming from. Main character's first reaction on seeing him was 'whooooaaa...bishounen!' (I quote literally). He also seems to specialise in looking like something smells bad, but looks like he'll soften quite quickly.

Then, of course, there's the evil dude who has coool slit-pupilled eyes and seems to be able to do funky water-esque sorcery stuff, who has thus far only appeared in the titles but shows promise. (Andrew informs me he may be the main character demon-ed up. This would explain why they wear the same uniform and have broadly similar haircuts. It would also makes main character dude infinitely cooler.) There's the end titles, which feature Gunther and Wolfram in chibi form chasing main character (also chibi) around the screen, in Gunther's case with a little chibi heart over his head :D And of course, the fact that this is about the average tone of the show.

I have much glee. Nice to have found one of my staple shows for the season. Thank you, Laura, my recommender of bishounen crack ^_^

Posted by Calliope at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ickle fic update over at Avernus - the random pairing Tasuki/Narsus fic that Nee-sama likes for the Tasuki characterisation (and if she approves it can't be *that* off), the GetBackers shortfic which I wrote aaaages ago but never got round to posting, and the Alucard & Dante fic I nagged Katy for for ages :D Ohh, I do love Integra kicking collective ass ^_^ I hope you approve of the title, it was only called that to fit in with the fic I wrote, but if you object I can change it. Titles were giving me headaches yesterday >_< And when I get title headaches, I inflict them on other people. Heh.

Feedback always appreciated...

Posted by Calliope at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

...oh God, please tell me I didn't just record the end of Knight Rider because I had to go and have dinner and I didn't want to miss the end.

>_< >_< >_< There is no excuse.

It's been my day off work today, so I made hot cross buns and went and read in the garden. Been a lovely, lovely sunny day, I even played violin for a while, I was feeling that up-beat ^_^ Haven't played violin for, ooh, a couple of months now, so playing for a couple of hours left me with blisters on my fingertips. But other than that, I felt a lot better by the end than at the beginning. It's very disheartening when I take a long time off, and then try playing again - everything just feels uncomfortable and somewhat off-key for ages. But after an hour or so I was able to slog my way through the Barber and Bach A Minor violin concertos again (not well, I'll admit, but hey, I've never been able to play them well ^_^), so I felt mildly encouraged. Maybe I'll even find time to do some practise this term. I can dream...

(Tangentally, I'd forgotten how much I enjoy Dead Zone. Maybe I should bother downloading some sometime....)

I need to write some fic and read some books sometime soon, I really do. The creative nerves seem to be atrophying. Ugh.

Edit: Heeee!

Posted by Calliope at 09:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Like a certain person I have considerable Master & Commander glee right now ^_^ In fact, it's the direct fault of that same person, since she gleed at me about it at lunch time when we were both waiting for Diagnosis Murder to come on (don't say anything. Please. I know there are some shameful shows I can defend liking, and some I really can't.) and so I sent urgent text message to my sister who happened to be in town and 'persuaded' (read: blackmailed) her to buy it for me. So I'm currently on a special-features kick, and have buckets of Maturin glee ^_^

On a tangentally related note, could one of the techies amongst us please work out a way for me to screencap DVDs? My version of WinDVD (v3.0) doesn't appear to have the screengrab function that the more recent ones have, or indeed the screengrab function that Lizzu's *older* version has. The older ones have the function whereby you press 'P' when it's playing and the pictures go into a folder called 'captures' in the WinDVD folder. Only mine has no 'captures' folder and pressing 'p' appears to do nothing at all. I run into the standard image-doesn't-appear problem when I try to simply 'print-screen' it - I believe doing something called 'switching off the overlay' should fix this, only I don't know what that means and can't find any options that look helpful. Nor can I find similar options in, eg. media player. Oh, and that random snagit program that Nee-sama found me doesn't seem to solve the problem at all ^_^ Similar overlay problem.

Yes, I know I'm crap with technology. I've admitted as much before. Don't look at me like that >_<

Posted by Calliope at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...I just went and didn't update for ages again, didn't I? You know it's a bad sign when Nee-sama's only one entry behind me in total, when she used to be...oh, a hundred or so behind ^_^;;;

Well, Thucydides is...going, slowly but surely. Have now read four and a half books, and only need to read book 8 now in Greek. Of course, then I need to learn the actual *history* that goes with it, but pshaw, that shouldn't worry me, should it? Other than that, I've planned some fics but written none, and stayed at home a lot doing little but Greek. I'm currently watching the Stargate 'Daniel's best' episode on Sky ('There But For The Grace Of God', not a bad choice, especially when one of the other choices was 'Holiday' which I do *not* like. At least this ep has fluffy season 1 hair, lots and lots of Daniel running around looking scared and defiant and gratuitous AU major-character death. Oh, and has spawned many, many J/D fics ^_^ I know what I like. I'm faintly ashamed of my liking for Stargate, but console myself with the fact that I *actually* only like Daniel and put up with the rest of the show for his sake. I don't feel that I need to apologise for my liking of beautiful geeky archaeologists with fluffy hair and huge blue eyes and aaaaaangst. Watching an ep has given me the urge to go and hunt up some decent J/D fics, of which I've actually found a surprising amount over the years. Especially the comedy fics. I feel that if there's anyone out there who likes Jack and/or Daniel and/or comedy-vaguely-slash fics, they should probably read this, this, this and this, in that order.)

And I'm about to watch new episode of CSI. Again with the pleasantly dull. Don't you all feel scintillated for knowing it?

Posted by Calliope at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)