mothwing | Recent Entries

Since most of our TV staples are currently on their summer break, Crocky and I have been checking out some new TV shows and like a few of the new ones.

White Collar: two WASPs, one FBI agent and a con-artist he arrested, strike an unlikely deal and fight crime. I don't really understand why this entertains me so much, especially given the paucity and relative two-dimensionality of the few female characters, but it is still entertaining to watch the main characters, in a The Pretender kind of way. The formula gets repetitive, though, but I am charmed by the fact that the main pairing of the show's fandom seems to be an OT3: con-artist/cop's wife/cop.

Pretty Little Liars - Desperate Housewives meets I Know What You Did Last Summer, sort of - four sixteen-year-old High School girls receive (text-) messages from someone impersonating their murdered friend Alison. The impersonator tries to expose the various secrets the four are entangled in and takes revenge on them. I am trying really, really hard to get into this, but fail because if this is what today's fifteen-year-olds think of themselves, it's hilarious.
So grown UP! And though I suspect that they do have a tongue-in-cheek My So-Called Life-take sometimes, this is not always that obvious. Especially the romantic storyline between one of their number and her teachers creeps me the hell out. I can see it work as a teenager fantasy, but I don't believe anyone would show this as a good thing on a show aimed at this demography. And those kids are so serious and GROWN-UP! Definitely old enough to have statutory rape-y relationships with their High School English teachers! Because they're TOTALLY WISE beyond their years! And if said High School teacher starts catching on and notices this might be dangerous for his job and leaves town, they are sad for days. DAYS, man! Also, the main characters are responsible for a fire that blinded another character, but we don't have to feel sorry for her, apparently, because she's creepy. Yeah. Also, they all look the same, and though one of them isn't white, no-one seems to be aware of that fact, which I found sad. I'm also shocked that Holly Mary Combs (37) has reached mother-character age already, especially seeing as her "daughter" Lucy Hale is 22.

Current Mood: dorky
Current Location: Germany, Bremen

Turns out that there are two great spotted woodpeckers!

Usually, I've only ever seen this little guy:

And I always get really excited whenI see him, and even more when I see both of them:

♥

( More woodpecker )

Current Mood: cheerful

So, today's the last day of school! Free time, possibly even warm weather, and even free LJ kisses, oh my!

What more could I ask for. I've got my big cup of cappuccino and I'm absolutely not preparing any lessons right now.

And of course I managed to get sick, but I'm used to that once the stress is gone, so I'm starting my holidays sniffling and sneezing once more. I'm not really in the holiday mood yet because I'm going to work on my thesis in summer and get to house-sit in Hamburg rather than going away somewhere, but it'll still be nice to have some free time, finally.

Apart from working on my concept I'm translating something for the charity that my neighbour runs and I'm contemplating which PC game to buy. Although that means I'll have to upgrade my graphics card sometime soon, because mine has been increasingly wobbly lately.

But other than being sick, everything's FINE.

Current Mood: sick and relaxed

Thanks for the v-gift, anonymous gift-giver!

Those black lips do look fierce.

Bake these.

They're not difficult to make and they're absolutely fantastic.

Unless you don't like peppermint, and if you don't like peppermint, well.

Current Mood: full

Simply type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search. Then, using only the first page, pick an image. Finally, copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into this mosaic maker (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php)

( Rules and credit for images. )

Current Mood: awake

Just when I thought this day was bad and would stay bad I found the

close_contrast masterlist full of SS/MM goodness, which includes a beautiful piece by

sigune .

This one is called "Unspoken": Between Headmaster Snape and his Deputy Headmistress, what is essential remains unspoken."

I'm always incredibly excited when she's drawn something new because her art always speaks volumes with such precise, efficient means, if that makes sense. She has a way of capturing the expressions so beautifully, and their clothing style and the furniture she's shown them on is just perfect for them.

So. Perfect.

(There are so many fics which look promising over there and at

hp_beholder , I'm really missing out unless I head over there this weekend.)

Current Mood: bouncy

Title: Choices
Rating: G
Characters: Minerva McGonagall and Eileen Snape
Summary: Minerva has called on a childhood acquaintance to see how she is doing after her wedding and the difference between them could not be greater - one is a witch at the height of her power, the other had to make a lot of uncomfortable compromises for her new life. The choices both witches had to make to get where they are were not easy for either of them.
Credits: =Lileya's great floral and foliar brush set, ~gvalkyrie's suddenly spring brush set, as well as *redheadstock's light brushes, another favourite.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: awake

Taking to heart this TED-talk as well as Jane McGonigal's book and this ExtraCredits episode on gamifying education I'm working on ways to make my class more motivating next year. If all things go well, I'll be teaching an 8th grade and I'm going to try to apply some of the things they propose.

Researching this is fun, too, because through this I've discovered awesome things like:

ChoreWars - a browser-based game in which you can enter an epic chore competition with your roomies

and

Plusoneme.com - which lets others give you points for your RL stats.

Current Mood: amused

24.

Interesting Times, by Terry Pratchett.
A reflection on holidays sparks a revolution in the counterweight continent and Rincewind is thrown in the middle of it.
Even though this was the first book I read in the Discworld series I did not read this one more than twice. Reading it now I can see why. The grey horde, much as I love the idea of aged heroes kicking butt, really make me extremely uncomfortable because of the "pillage, plunder and rape, hur hur hur"-aspects of it.. Rape is not funny. Killing is not funny, and in other novels, this seems to be clear to him as well.

Current Mood: disappointed

Nothing new on the hospital front, so I've resorted to a family remedy to hard times: books by Michael Ende.

I had always suspected that it must be hard to do justice to Michael Ende's prose, but until I discovered the audiobook I never realised how trite things can sound in English that are so beautiful in German.

However, some parts are still remarkably well done.

"Wer niemals ganze Nachmittage lang mit glühenden Ohren und verstrubbeltem Haar über einem Buch saß und las und las und die Welt um sich her vergaß, nicht mehr merkte, daß er hungrig wurde oder fror -

Wer niemals heimlich beim Schein einer Taschenlampe unter der Bettdecke gelesen hat, weil Vater oder Mutter oder sonst irgendeine besorgte Person einem das Licht ausknipste mit der gutgemeinten Begründung, man müsse jetzt schlafen, da man doch morgen so früh aus den Federn sollte -

Wer niemals offen oder im geheimen bitterliche Tränen vergossen hat, weil eine wunderbare Geschichte zu Ende ging und man Abschied nehmen mußte von den Gestalten, mit denen man gemeinsam so viele Abenteuer erlebt hatte, die man liebte und bewunderte, um die man gebangt und für die man gehofft hatte, und ohne deren Gesellschaft einem das Leben leer und sinnlos schien -

Wer nichts von alledem aus eigener Erfahrung kennt, nun, der wird wahrscheinlich nicht begreifen können, was Bastian jetzt tat."

And the English version:

"If you have never spent whole afternoons with burning ears and rumpled hair, forgetting the world around you over a book, forgetting cold and hunger--

If you have never read secretly under the bedclothes with a flashlight, because your father or mother or some other well-meaning person has switched off the lamp on the plausible ground that it was time to sleep because you had to get up so early--

If you have never wept bitter tears because a wonderful story has come to an end and you must take your leave of the characters with whom you have shared so many adventures, whom you have loved and admired, for whom you have hoped and feared, and without whose company life seems empty and meaningless--

If such things have not been part of your own experience, you probably won't understand what Bastian did next."

Drives me nuts that they call the place "Fantastica", though. Why change that name?

Current Mood: blank

23.

Nichts: Was im Leben wichtig ist, by Janne Teller. (Nothing)
When Pierre decides that nothing in life is worth living for, his classmates want to convince him otherwise and start collecting things that mean something to them. What starts innocently with favourite comic books quickly spirals out of control as people are required to give up more and more important things until it ends in excavating bodies, cutting off fingers and, inevitably, rape. Of course. But it's still a very good book and captivating.

22.

Unter Verdacht, by Joyce Carol Oates (Big Mouth and Ugly Girl).
When a joke goes wrong Matt is suspected of having planned to blow up the school. The only one who does not believe that is Ursula, sports star and outsider no one likes. Haven't finished this one yet.

21.

Die Lebensfahrt auf dem Meer der Welt - der Topos, by Christoph Hönig.
A book on the topos of life as a sea voyage and the world as that sea, something of a guided tour through different periods with different texts and analyses of what they make of this topos, how they use it and how it changes over the years. Ever since I read Crossing the Bar and listened to a lecture on it by Professor Haas, who was one of the best speakers I have ever heard I've had a soft spot for this topos and enjoyed encountering it elsewhere subsequently (like in Gregorius).

20.

My Gender Workbook, by Kate Bornstein.
Very practical, hands-on introduction to gender, workbook-style.
Haven't finished this one yet but had a good time with the articles and the way they're written as well as the questionnaires. The interludes do feel gratuitous at times, but they don't bother me, it's still very informative.

19.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
Holds what the title promises: a guide on how to win friends and influence people, or rather, how to modify your interpersonal skills so as to facilitate that.
Ever since I saw the thread in the Slytherin forum on CS back in the day I've been wanting to read this book. I bought it now that covering communication with my students is imminent and it's enjoyable to read.

18.

The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss.
This one deserves a bigger review. I did have a good time reading it, but the longwinded pointlessness of vast part of the middle (Felurian. Oh god did that ever end), some flaws in the setting (would Bast really have sat there for six hours and listen to Kvothe talk about the fairy realm without comment? Hard to imagine) and the increasing level of NiceGuyness of the main character made this hard to enjoy - regardless of just how much I looked forward to this. I liked how the world opens up and still love the magic system, though I'm getting increasingly uncomfortable at the moral framework of our hero (slaying old ladies begging for their lives is not ok even if you think that they were conspiring with rapists, especially if it's likely that they were forced to play along themselves, asshole). The amount of times in which the Rule of Cool is used to make something work also baffles me. All in all enjoyable, but there are things that are off.

17.

The Lucifer Effect - How Good People Turn Evil, by Philip Zimbardo.
This one centres pretty heavily on the Stanford Prison Experiment. Again not news, but the conclusion he draws and what he extrapolates about similar scenes from Guantanamo is still worth a read.

16.

Das Milgram-Experiment, by Stanley Milgram.
An account of the experiment. A classic. I've read it before, and I keep being amazed and terrified at the results.

15.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney.
Greg's adventures as a small boy in Middle School. A typical story about a non-stereotypically male hero type whose sidekick inevitably has to be even less stereotypically masculine to affirm them, or something. I can't really say I am care that greatly, but I watched Wonder Years enough in my teens to recognise the narrative enough to sympathise. My students love this book so I gave it a read.

Current Mood: tired

[Error: unknown template qotd]
No, of course not, sex is a very personal issue and I want my children to find out about it based on their secret observations on RedTube at a friend's house, playground hearsay about Coke being a great contraceptive and whatever people harassing them online or IRL tell them. Formal education on the subject would completely ruin their innocent outlook on life!

How is this even a question, LJ?

Current Mood: annoyed

You've all probably heard it already but I'm still slightly gobsmacked at the amount of sense written by this BioWare person (much better write-up over at ontd_p here and sf_d here).

What happened is this: they put out a game in which the fe/male main character can be romantically approached by both male and female NPCs. And everybody sees what's wrong there, clearly not enough content for exclusively straight males! But FEAR NOT, STRAIGHT MALE FANS!

One straight dude takes it upon himself to let BioWare know that they've neglected their main demographic, straight males (emphasis mine):

( To summarize, in the case of Dragon Age 2, BioWare neglected their main demographic: The Straight Male Gamer. )

I'm not surprised, but what did floor me was the reaction of the company. Rather than say things on the lines of "but it's cheaper that way" or "focus on the F/F romance, it's hot", Daivd Gaider talks sense about privilege (with costliness thrown in, though, sadly):

( The romances in the game are not for "the straight male gamer". They're for everyone. )

Not that this makes me more likely to buy the game which still sounds pretty failtastic for various reasons, but this is nice.

Current Mood: sleepy

«5. Lesbischer LiteraturPreis»

Schon zum 5. Mal schreibt der el!es-Verlag für das Jahr 2011 den »Lesbischen LiteraturPreis« aus.

Wettbewerbsbedingungen:

1. Teilnehmen können ausschließlich Frauen.
2. Eingereicht werden können lesbische Liebesromane oder Romane, die das lesbische Leben zum Thema haben. Ebenso sind sogenannte »Uber«-Storys erlaubt.
3. Eine Länge von mindestens 60.000 Wörtern und ein Happy End sind für den Roman zwingend erforderlich.
4. Zudem wären wir sehr froh, wenn der Roman im Präteritum geschrieben wäre und nicht im Präsens. Auch geben wir der Perspektive aus der 3. Person den Vorzug vor der Ich-Perspektive.
5. Schicken Sie eine Inhaltsangabe (die bitte im Präsens und nicht im Präteritum), die ca. eine halbe bis eine DIN-A4-Seite umfaßt, und eine Kopie Ihres Romans im .rtf- oder .doc-Format an manuskripte@elles.de, zusätzlich mit einer Kurzbiographie, in der Sie sich kurz vorzustellen, Ihrem vollständigen Namen und Ihrer E-Mail-Adresse. Bitte benennen Sie die Datei nach folgendem Muster:
Vorname_Nachname__Titel.rtf (Vorname_Unterstrich_Nachname_Unterstrich_Unterstrich_Titel.rtf)
Bitte Name, Postadresse und E-Mail auch am Ende der Inhaltsangabe noch einmal angeben.
6. Sofern Sie den Roman oder Teile davon bereits auf dem Internet veröffentlicht haben, geben Sie bitte die Webseite an, auf der der Text veröffentlicht wurde. Ausgewählte Romane müssen vor dem Beginn des Lektorats aus dem Netz genommen werden.
7. Die Regeln der Rechtschreibung und Grammatik sollten korrekt umgesetzt sein. Bitte verwenden Sie die Rechtschreibprüfung Ihrer Textverarbeitung, bevor Sie uns das Manuskript schicken.
8. Für die Veröffentlichung kann natürlich ein Pseudonym verwendet werden, das jedoch aus einem Vor- und einem Nachnamen bestehen sollte.
9. Die Inhaltsangabe und ein Auszug des eingesandten Manuskriptes (nicht der vollständige Text) werden einen Monat vor Vergabe des Preises auf der Internetseite www.elles.de veröffentlicht. Die el!es-Leserinnen stimmen dann online darüber ab, welches der eingesandten Manuskripte den Preis gewinnt.
10. Die ausgewählten Romane werden vor der Veröffentlichung von uns lektoriert.
11. Einsendeschluß ist der 31.03.2011.

Der Preis für den besten Roman ist ein Wochenende für zwei (weibliche) Personen in der Frauenpension Bertingen (http://www.frauenpension-bertingen.de/) und die Veröffentlichung des Romans bei el!es (selbstverständlich mit einem entsprechenden Vertrag und Honorar).

here at édition el!es.

I thought this might be interesting for some of you. Last year, many of the submissions were amazingly bad (also, my favourite contestant did not win, sadly, so I'm probably biased), hopefully they'll be better this year.

It's odd what people submit to a contest hosted by a publisher who, if you win, publishes your manuscript as a book - as though paragraphing and, in some cases, compelling characters and spelling were entirely optional. You see, I'm notoriously bad at re-reading and editing my own work, too, but I had hoped that if you're going to submit your work to a publisher you might want to have someone else beta it first.

Also, I absolutely do understand and appreciate that this is a minority publisher aimed at and run by a specific minority, but I admit I'm getting uncomfortable by the way the publisher emphasises this:

«Lesen!»

[...]
Und ja: Dies ist ein lesbischer Wettbewerb, für Lesben, weil das hier nämlich eine lesbische Webseite ist, weil el!es ein lesbischer Verlag ist, der ausschließlich lesbische Bücher herausbringt, und weil ich eine lesbische Schriftstellerin und Verlegerin bin, die sich nicht ständig mit irgendwelchen sexuellen Phantasien von Heterofrauen herumschlagen will, die nichts mit dem lesbischen Leben zu tun haben.

Ruth Gogoll.

.... So, not me, then, I guess, ok. Going by this as well as her other comments, I also kinda doubt that she knows non-monosexual people even exist.

Still, I'm looking forward to this year's submissions, the inevitable drama and the possible additions to my to-read-pile.

Current Mood: sickly

I realise that I talk about a variety of stuff on here and not everything is interesting for everybody, so I'm going to use the following filters:

work-related things
gender-related things
sexualities-related things
fandom-related things.
general things.

Please let me know if you do not want to be included in one or more of these or if you want to be included in one or more of these exclusively.

EDIT: I think it makes sense if the default is the status quo right now, which is being on all of these.

Meme break!

( Alphabet soup. )

Current Mood: busy

"The majority of people are white, so what's wrong with them being on billboards in the majority of cases?"

A work/friend of mine recently showed her class extracts from Blue Eyed and subsequently discussed a scene in it in which a billboard with a good-looking white, middle-aged and obviously affluent couple are shown. Pretty much unanimously, the class came to the above conclusion. Now, statistically this seems to be true, but srsly. We'd like them to knoy what's problematic about that statement, but are at a loss on how to achieve that. What I could come up with on the fly was:

1.) To ask them if they think that these billboards should show people who represent the national average of what people look like (I'm assuming here that that'll not be a very good-looking, affluent, elderly white couple) and why this isn't on it if they want the majority represented.

2.) To ask why there has to be a couple at all on this product, and if this product is only for white married elderly people.

Basically to make clear that this is a constructed norm and make them think of ways in which this is harmful - because what happens if you don't belong to that norm? Maybe also showing them quote by Adrienne Rich might help a bit, too:

"When those who have the power to name and to socially construct reality choose not to see you or hear you ... when someone with the authority of a teacher, say, describes the world and you are not in it, there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked in the mirror and saw nothing. It takes some strength of soul—and not just individual strength, but collective understanding—to resist this void, this non-being, into which you are thrust, and to stand up, demanding to be seen and heard."

So yeah, grasping a straws here.

Help, oh wise flist?

Current Mood: confused

If, after something undead and terrible from another world broke into my boarding school and my 18-year-old prefect subsequently walked up to me, the teacher, and informed me that the undead thing had been a messenger from her father, that her father had most likely been abducted by something else undead and terrible, and that now her plan was to,

1. go off to ski into the Mordor-du-jour-land-of-necromancy-and-the-undead,
2. by herself,
3. to find her father, a powerful necromancer, killed by something more powerful than himself,
4. with only her self-taught knowledge in Necromancy (she had read the entire textbook once!) and her father's sword to guide her,

I doubt my answer as a responsible teacher who had known her since she arrived at the school at the age of five would be,

"Ok, sure, go right ahead, bye!"

stolen from

lordhellebore :

Ask me to take pictures of any aspect of my life that you're interested in/curious about -- it can be anything from my favourite shirt over the inside of my fridge to my mobile phone. Leave your requests as a comment to this entry, I'll snap the pictures and post them as soon as I can.

Current Mood: amused

Lots of sensible things about LGBTQ representation are being said over at

sparkindarkness' journal on how problematic subtextual and Word of Gay type of "representation" in canon are.

«Ok a rant about LGBTQ representation – and why hints don’t cut it»

[...]

No, it’s not enough. Your hot men who have what may be a lingering look or touched each other a little longer than you thought was strictly necessary or y’know are just “so gay together” do NOT count as GBLTQ representation. I don’t care if you’re sat there with your slash goggles and you’re going to run on home and dash off a ream of steamy steamy mansexing (but hey, if you’re going to, maybe you can avoid tropes like making one of the men shorter than he is on screen so he can ‘bottom properly’ and other such badness? Ugh, yes really) your slash fantasy is not a GBLTQ representation.

[...]

sparkindarkness .

There are also smart things in the comments on how problematic platonic and asexual relationships are being made if every platonic on-screen relationship is automatically seen as sexual by

kazaera here.

Current Mood: chipper

Title: Persephone's Pamianthe
Pairing: Pomona/Rosmerta
Rating: G
Credits: gvalkyrie's Suddenly Spring brush for the flower, dollfie-chan's Snowflake brushes for the snowflakes, and Tempting-Resources's Sparkle brushes for the sparkles and the smaller snowflakes.

( Read more... )

"Let's not give each other anything," the landlady had said to her that December and Pomona had agreed. She knew that Madam Rosmerta felt winter like an ache, trying her best to cover-up the gloom with the bustle that running The Three Bromsticks provided, keeping herself busy as best she could.

A flower, though, Pomona mused, was not a gift, not really. They grew where they pleased, and even if one as impressive as the Persephone's Pamianthe might have been guided in its choice where to take root and flower by a well-meaning witch, it could never really be given.

Gift for

therealsnape, who wrote the most beautiful Pomona/Rosmerta fic and is a great person all around.

This is a repost because the original post somehow was eaten.

Current Mood: confused

14.

Myth Directions, by Robert Asprin.
Tanda wants to go shopping for a birthday present for Aahz and decides that the incredibly ugly civil-war-preventing war game trophy on the odd planet of Jahk is the best choice. Needless to say stealing this piece is not as easy as it sounds and they soon find themselves in the midst of the war game preventing said civil war.
Another for the train-book pile. Ok read, not terribly great in terms of consistent characterisation, and dear god, the fatphobia and misogyny. Still funny enough to get through, and every Fantasy book that manages to get around an epic battle in the end deserves a cookie.

13.

Myth-conceptions, by Robert Asprin.
Court magician sounds like a cushy job and Aahz forces Skeeve to try out for the job, which he promptly gets. Little do either of them know that an army is heading their way and they're the kingdom's first line of defence.
I have serious trouble with the unlikely character development of the main character, but I do like that this does not have an epic final battle and I thoroughly enjoyed reading how they find a way around fighting. Well done.

12.

Another Fine Myth, by Robert Asprin.
Magical apprentice and wannabe thief Skeeve is impressed when his master summons a demon, the more so when said master is killed and the demon introduces himself as Aahz, dimension traveller and his master's co-worker. Together they travel through various dimension to find his master's murderer.
Very funny, though it's clear that this series comes from the late seventies. I can't stand how Tanda and other female characters are treated, but that was only to be expected.

11.

The Long, Dark Teatime of the Soul, by Douglas Adams.
A story about holistic detective Dirk Gently, norse gods, and man-eating fridges.
Humorous, but dear god, eighties gender-based humour is really not my thing. Also remind me why that poor cleaning lady is working for this person, again.

10.

America - The Book, by Jon Stewart, Ben Karlin and David Javerbaum.
Another humorous history, this time of America. Very entertaining and critical account of American history.

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle.
How did I miss this? It has an unattractive female character! Who gets into fights! And wears braces! And glasses! And who is not an academic overachiever, either! Awesome. It reads a bit like a mix of The Demon Headmaster, and A Series of Unfortunate Events.

The Name of the Wind, by Patrock Rothfuss.
First instalment in the Kingkiller chronicles though we don't know which king that was yet. The account of the young life of Kvothe, trouper, street urchin, student, arcanist and subsequent inkeeper as narrated by himself.
I re-read this again and am re-reading it with Crocky, only counting it once. In spite of its gloominess I very much enjoy the read and still love the language of the author. The audiobook is terrible, however.

Reaper Man, by Terry Pratchett.
The Auditors of Reality decide that Death has developed too much of a personality and send him to retire, during his absence life force builds up and as he comes to term with his newly acquired life, so do other things because death effectively stops.
I hadn't read this one in a while and I must say that once more, I rather enjoy reading my electronic reading experience on the Oyo, though it doesn't beat real books.

How to Speak Dragonese, by Cressida Cowell.
During another pirate training lesson Hiccup, fishlegs and Bog Burgler heir Camicazi are abducted by the Romans
Obviously I'm a big fan of Camicazi and I couldn't wait to read this with Crocky.

How to be a Pirate, by Cressida Cowell.
During pirate training lesson Hiccup encounters Alvin the Poor but Honest Farmer who is anything but and successfully resists the temptation that a great big treasure offers.
Re-reading the series with Crocky and I remember why I love it so much.

An Utterly Impartial History of Britain, by John O'Farrel
Very entertaining history of Britain that still informs, much like the Horrible Histories. Can't wait to somehow use this in class.

Valor's Trial, by Tanya Huff.
GySgt Torin Kerr fights her way out of an underground POW camp and has to cooperate with the enemy to do so.
I've come to rather enjoy this series, it makes good train reading, even though I still shake my head at her Star Trek idea of what's universal and continue to be disappointed at the lack in progress in robotics this future has (why do living soldiers have to go everywhere? Why don't they ever send recon drones or whatever?). What's also fun: look at the cover of this book, how long d'you think her hair is? She's supposed to have a crew cut in the books, but GOD FORBID anyone female has short hair on book covers, though I suppose that for whoever drew this this is what "short" hair would look like on a woman.

Current Mood: busy

Oh, Greenline. I used to love you and I still think you're better than Cornelsen. Still, what on earth ARE you people thinking?

This is the supplementary material that people find on your homepage - a unit on what it's like, being a teenager, including ~voices of teens~ and their view on gendered and gender stereotyped hardships they have to deal with ("Girls are more supportive of each other", "girls are more superficial", "boys don't cry", "boys want sex").

This starts badly enough with this:

Nice use of colour coding and of stereotypes, there. Also, how are teenagers even supposed to know whether they're "true" or "clichés"...? Scientists aren't sure about this, what good does it do to do a fact-free, gut-feeling based discussion on this? Then, at the end of the texts that follow and which aren't much better (well, the authors are young, I thought), there's this:

Now, Klett, Is this really what you want to teach your kids? These "facts"?

It's also fun that observations based on gender seems to be the only case left in which it's fine to use stereotypes as the basis for any discussion, and it's also not even encouraged to specifically look at differences between those social groups - it's been a while since students were encouraged to draw a table listing the differences between black and white people, for example.

Current Mood: annoyed

Someone pasted together twenty versions of Walther's Palästinalied, and I quite like the result.

The text in MHD and NHD: Álrêrst lébe ich mir werde...

Watch on YouTube

First, what I suppose passes for good news under the circumstances over here, even though it was really about time - now it's possible to get a registered partnership with your spouse without additional surgical requirements in Germany.

The rest of the law, however.

Oh, God, dear God, why. ( Trigger warning: legal transfail )

EDIT: looks like they did suspend the sterilization-paragraph entirely? The German article I read on this was fucking confusing. Also, my pidgin-knowledge of legalese doesn't mix well with my headcold. I thought this only applied in cases in which otherwise a registered partnership was not possible, but it looks as though it's suspended until it's been reviewed, which would be incredibly awesome, and also about motherfucking time.

Current Mood: gloomy

"Can anyone tell me anything about what people used to write on in the thirteenth and fourteenth century?"
"They used to carve things in stone."
"... In the thirteenth century, they took notes by carving them in stone...?"
"Well, yes. Until they started to print books."

This person?

NOT writing on this guy's head.

Current Mood: amused
Current Location: Germany, Bremen
Current Music: Palästinalied

People.

I know that you're all super busy with all your lesson plans and stuff, and I know that most of you sit through their didactics seminars pretty much on autopilot, but I'd like to point out something.

"The boys should focus on Romeo and the girls on Juliet, because all girls can identify with lusting after the forbidden guy."

Think about this for more than five seconds and you'll see that this is a dumb task with a dumber explanation for its existence. It's factually wrong. This is not PC-ness gone wild, this is a factual error that you're making. I think we all agree about the fact that you shouldn't teach kids wrong things. So get a clue, teacher. Especially given the fact that you feel comfortable saying this to me shows such incredible levels of idiocy I don't even know where to start.

I know that you'll say that you can't pay attention to these things all of the time, because the vast majority of people are straight and ID as either of the two, but seriously, do you also not pay attention to misspelt words if students only get one letter wrong because the vast majority of letters in the word are fine?

I know that there is a reason why I'm made so damn uncomfortable by the fact that everybody loves Romeo and Juliet and other straight institutions so damn much, but really, people, there's a fucking limit.

I always feel bad for laughing so much and so gleefully at US idiots and being glad that we didn't have many comparable people over here, but now I can proudly present this guy. A person who thinks that Jewish people are smarter because of genes and Muslims are lazy and stupid and it's impossible to integrate them, among many other points that make the mind boggle.

He decided it'd be a good idea to give a BBC interview. If I can be bothered I'll supply choice quotes later.

"The lack of economic and integrational success of the Damascan people are due to cultural features which are due to the Muslim faith."
"Most of them [Arabs and Turkish people] don't feel discriminated against."
"If you're discriminated against if you wear a headscarf that's your own choice. [...] You could as well live in the United States or in Turkey."
"The Turkish woman which lives in Germany told me some weeks ago, 'Please don't take these mental aggravations seriously, oriental people tend to play with their emotions and love to raise guilt in others.'"
"I have alienated nobody. I have just stated facts, and that's alienating nobody."
"I think if the United States would be better off if they were careful with having two different languages in one country."

So, to sum up, we have a powerful white male German saying, "You Muslims are stupid underachieving welfare leeches, possibly because of genetics, but I'm going to mumble a bit over that point. If you're discriminated against, you're exaggerating because of your emotional nature or have chosen the bed you lie in and are welcome to move to another country if you don't like that. Gee, why don't you people integrate better and insist on keeping to yourselves?"

Current Mood: aghast

Hello there, geese, welcome back.

Was the trip really worth the effort, though? You were only gone for two months this time.

Current Mood: mellow

The Heart of Valor, by Tanya Huff.
After her encounter with the alien in the previous instalment curious readers are now left with the following clues: (1) there is an alien space ship which could read minds and create places taken from the content of their heads (2) the escape pod created by the ship with which they escaped in the last novel has gone AWOL (3) the Major whom Torrin is supposed to babysit right now mysteriously has a acquired a new arm made from an unknown matter (4) no one can remember the escape pod from the mysterious alien vessel, as though their minds have been wiped (5) the training programme on the planet on which they're on is starting to act ~strange~, as though someone had reprogrammed it.
Even though it takes a bit long for the main characters to figure out the plot, this was still entertaining enough to get through. Challenge-wise, I'm counting the love story between Torrin and her civilian, so it doesn't beat it.

The Better Part of Valor, by Tanya Huff.
Sgt. Torin Kerr and a crew of diplomats and other civilians encounter a big yellow alien space ship which is not as harmless as it seems and are soon in the midst of danger.
Her plots are a tad forseeable, but I'm entertained and I appreciate the main character, she's fun to read. I'm not overly impressed with the world building or the violence, but didn't really expect much, either.

Dearest Friends,

here's hoping you had a great year 2010

and will have a great year 2011!

Beautiful shot of the fireworks over the Außenalster in Hamburg I discovered online.

Beautiful shot of the fireworks over the Außenalster in Hamburg I discovered online.

Current Mood: chipper

( As every year... )

Current Mood: calm

As always, I forgot to note down most books and had to reconstruct my list once I remembered, and as always, I excluded job-related stuff. I think I didn't include all the Discworld novels I re-read, either, or some of the audiobooks I listened to, which I do count as books if they're unabridged.

Privilege - A Reader, edited by Michael Kimmel
Zero, by Brian McCabe
How to train your dragon, by Cressida Cowell.
How to Be a Pirate, by Cressida Cowell.
How to Speak Dragonese, by Cressida Cowell.
How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse, by Cressida Cowell.
How to Twist a Dragon's Tale, by Cressida Cowell.
Die männliche Herrschaft, by Pierre Bourdieu.
Wie ein Vogel im Käfig, by Heike Brandt.
Racing the Dark, by Alaya Dawn Johnson.
Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin.
Introducing Romanticism, by Duncan Heath and Judy Boreham.
Introducing Feminism, by Cathia Jenainati.
Der Totentanz der Marienkirche in Lübeck und der Nikolaikirche in Reval (Tallinn), by Hartmut Freytag.
Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre.
Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex, by Eoin Colfer.
Wie man mit Fundamentalisten diskutiert, ohne den Verstand zu verlieren by Hubert Schleichert.
Ein Volksfeind, by Henrik Ibsen. (An Enemy of the People)
A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines.
Killer in the Dark, by Colin Foreman.
Kissing the Witch, by Emma Donoghue.
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! by Laura Amy Schlintz.
Delusions of Gender, by Cordelia Fine.
Praktische Anleitung zur Abfassung Deutscher Aufsätze, by Karl Leo Cholevius.
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, by Barry Lyga.
I Shall Wear Midnight, by Terry Pratchett.
Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen.
Wolfsbane Winter, by Jane Fletcher.
Fire, by Kristin Cashore.
Die Verwandlung, by Franz Kafka.
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen.
The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss.
Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher.
Holes, by Louis Sacher.
Geek Chic: Smart Women in Popular Culture, edited by Sherry Inness.
Juliet, Naked, by Nick Hornby.
A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby.
I Know I Am, But What Are You? by Samantha Bee.
The Year of Living Biblically, by A. J. Jacobs.
Johnny and the Dead, by Terry Pratchett.
Lustrum, by Robert Harris.
The Owl Killers, by Karen Maitland.
The Company of Liars, by Karen Maitland.
Millionär, von Tommy Jaud.
A Star Called Henry, by Roddy Doyle.
Die Vermessung der Welt, by Daniel Kehlmann.
The Nixie's Song by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black.
The Wyrm King, by Toni DiTerlizzi and Holly Black.
Boy2Girl, by Terence Blacker.
Ich hätte nein sagen können, by Annika Thor.
Notes On A Scandal, by Zoe Heller.
Ambereye, by Gill McNight.
Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum oder: Wie Gewalt entstehen und wohin sie führen kann (The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, Or: how violence develops and where it can lead), by Heinrich Böll.
Die Feuerzangenbowle, by Heinrich Spoerl.
The Princess Bride - S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure; The "Good Parts" Version, by William Goldman.
Föhn mich nicht zu, by Stephan Serin.
Lehrerzimmer, by Marcus Orths.
Valor's Choice, by Tanya Huff.
Deadline for Murder, by Val McDermid.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth, by Carrie Ryan
King Solomon's Ring, by Jonathan Stroud
Masques, by Patricia Briggs
The Shattered Chain, by Marion Zimmer Bradley (currently)

	'09	'10
Female authors	14	30
Male authors	36	36
Re-read books	18	09
New books	32	54

Current Mood: flu-having

59.

Valor's Choice, by Tanya Huff.
Follows an infantry division's unusual diplomatic mission to a strange planet officials want to join the Confederacy of planets which turns out not to be as peaceful as it looked, through the eyes of their staff sergeant.
In spite of the fact that there is no full-on love plot, the fact that main character and staff sergeant Torin Kerr and her Lt. hook up in the first chapter in a scene reminiscent of Grey's Anatomy's pilot episode this disqualifies it from beating the challenge. I'm not much of a Sci-Fi or military Sci-Fi reader, so I was never likely to be too fond of this, and many of the things that bother me in other military Sci-Fis are true for this one, too. It's a bit too simple and convenient when it comes to alien enemies (the enemy is ugly, the enemy is barbaric, the enemy looks like a lizard, the enemy's culture is barbaric and inferior to our own, etc.), and even considering my past as a Star Trek fan I'm not impressed with what passes for universal traits which even transcends species in this series - which probably won't even transcend cultures on this one planet.

58.

Deadline for Murder, by Val McDermid.
Recently returned from her exile, Lindsay Gordon finds that an old friend is dead, another friend is in jail for her murder, and her lover has left her for the murderer's lover, who hires her to clear her exes name.
Dear Lord, the moral framework of this novel. Oh, so you prefer young, underage prostitutes? Yeah, that's fine, they're also drug addicts. e're not going to comment on that, move right along. You're seventeen, a drug addict and a prostitute and so used to being exploited you've come to expect it? Good, we'll do some more of that, then.

Oh, so you murdered a friend, implicated another friend and put her behind bars and stolen someone'a South African's script and published it as your own? Whatever, I say, I've still got feelings for you, why don't I help you escape.

While I like heroes that don't have clear cut morals (Snape fan here!), I don't like it if I get the feeling that we're supposed to agree with this.

Current Mood: sick

None of these have a Christmas theme, but they're movies which tended to turn up on TV around Christmas while I was growing up, so they've become Christmas movies for me. They're all Fantasy movies, most of them don't only border on but have invaded and taken over cheesy territories, they're WASP-targeted to a fault and none of them apart from The Last Unicorn passes the Bechdel-Wallace test.

( Five. )

Current Mood: cold

Crocky's conducting a church service and I chose to stay home in the warmth, lazy that I am, because her choir is in the middle of nowhere. We'll attend midnight mass and listen to parts of Bach's Christmas oratio together, though. I'm looking forward to that, because we don't get much time together this Christmas, what with work and parental visits.

Current Mood: melancholy

It seems that the best chance of finding books about women without love plots is when searching among YA novels and historical novels involving royal, crossdressing characters hell-bent on learning how to fight, as long as they can keep their hands off servants and mentors, that is. Not entirely surprising, but sad.

The books below, judging by summaries and reviews, have good chances of not containing love plots.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher's Understood Betsy - orphan Elizabeth Ann leaves her sheltered city life for a life on her aunt's farm and its various chores, which she rapidly grows to love too much to leave again.

Allan Frewin Jones' Warrior Princess series: Branwen, aided by faithful former slave Rhodri, becomes a warrior princess and defends her home and hearth against the Saxons. I'm foreseeing Branwen/Rhodri, but who knows.

Astrid Lindgren's Ronja the Robber's Daughter - in spite of her family history, Ronja does not want to become a robber, neither does Birk, the son of her clan's closest enemy. They flee and their families have to work together to find their children.

Donna Jo Napoli: Hush. Irish Princess Melkorka and her sister Brigid are sent away for safekeeping when a plot on her family is threatening her life and are captured by Russian slavers instead. They try to keep their royal birth secret by not speaking. Upside: no love plot, downside: gangrape.

Rebecca Tingle's version of teen Æthelflæd, The Edge of the Sword. King Alfred's teenaged daughter Æthelflæd is not happy with the prospect of having to marry an older ally of her father, even unhappier with her bodyguard, but learns how to fight and protect those close to her gladly, which soon becomes necessary.

Theresa Tomlinson's Wolf Girl. Wulfrun's mother is accused of stealing a neclace and Wulfrun sets out to prove her innocene.

Other loveplot-less books:

Michael Ende's Momo- Orphan Momo live s in a ruined amphitheatre. When everyone she loves start falling prey to the Men in Grey and their timesaving bank, she steals their life time back. German classic really eveybody should read.

Annika Thor's Sanning eller Konsekvens (Ich hätte nein sagen können) -Nora doesn't like the way her class, especially rich Fanny, are mobbing big-chested Karen, but finds out to what lengths even she herself will go to get her best friend Sabina back, who is best friends with Fanny these days.

Current Mood: chipper

57.

Lehrerzimmer, by Marcus Orths.
Grotesque German satire on schools after PISA, though it's closer to reality than one might assume, sadly. Trainee teacher Kranich arrives at his new school in Baden-Württemberg where the headmaster's draconic regime has caused the teachers to form a secret resistance. This very short novel is sadly too absurd to entertain on one end and too realistic to be funny on the other. The plot, much-lauded as Kafkaesque and Orwellian, is more of a collection of bizarre anecdotes loosely connected by a very short plot. I was disappointed.

56.

Föhn mich nicht zu, by Stephan Serin.
Another novel on the pains of being a trainee teacher in Germany. Some anecdotes are funny, at times the humour is extremely forced, and where it is forced, it's completely out of line and very crude, but the parts which aren't forced really are funny. There were several situations which I sadly immediately recognised and it makes sense that most of the trainees in my year purchased and read this book. Still, it has serious issues, like the fact that I think we're meawnt to sympathise with the narrator, but I am not about to sympathise with a trainee intent on rating the breasts of his students or telling them to work as a sex worker if they get their answers wrong.

Current Mood: busy

Just finished packing for my trip to Hanover today to see Crocky and spend Christmas Eve with her, head to Hamburg on Christmas Day to see my family, then maybe to Hesse to see the in-laws on Boxing Day.

I hope all of you have great holidays and a lovely Christmas!

(Yesterday's lunar eclipse)

Current Mood: busy

In my quest to find loveplotless books about strong heroines an anon,

therealsnape and

holyschist came to my aid with these recs:

? Val McDermid: the Lindsay Gordon mystery series (lesbian detective novels), but not A Deadline for Murder, in which there are two love plots woven into the main plot.

Anne McCaffrey: Dinosaur Planet series (which, according to the Amazon review section seems to be about a male and a female character who do have some sort of romance plot, though, so I'm not sure I found the right book here), Freedom series (I seem to recall that the main point was the love plot between the male and the female lead in some kind of female slave scenario, but it's too long ago since the friend who read the series told me about this one, so I might be mistaken), and the Harper Hall trilogy (the first of which sounds delightful - a musician and dragons! It seems that only the first two of this trilogy are meant to be for the challenge, though, since the third one is about a male character).

Katherine Kurtz: The Legends of the Camber of Culdi (Camber being an Earl make this rec somewhat of a puzzler for me, though the Deryni series does sound interesting, being "set in a land analogous to medieval Wales" with magic - though maybe Anon meant a specific volume, like In the King's Service, for example, which appears to be about an Alyce); Legacy of Lehr which I think I remember seeing at some point during my my cat phase.

Marion Zimmer Bradley: Darkover novels centered around the Renunciates, basically -the Renunciates being a group of matriarchic Amazons who revolted against the norms of their feudal society. Not being familiar with the Darkover series I'm not sure I could understand later instalments without prior knowledge, though. I'll try to get hold of the books from one of the MZB completist I know. Anyway, the recs: Hawkmistress!, The Shattered Chain, it's sequels Thendara House and City of Sorcery.

Ellen Kushner's The Privilege of the Sword - coming-of-age story about Katherine becoming a swordsmistress and coming to terms with the intrigues and plots at her uncle's court.

? Tanya Huff's Valor books - military space opera on an infantry division from a staff sergeant's PoV. - Valor's Choice does have the heroine falling in lust with her Lt. at the very beginning of the book in a scene reminiscent of the Grey's Anatomy pilot and keeps having romantic thoughts about the superior under her care throughout the book, so I don't think this qualifies.

Karen Cushman's medieval YA (like Midwife's Apprentice - Alys, née Beetle is apprenticed to a midwife )

Cindy Pon's Silver Phoenix - Ai Ling goes on a quest to free her father and find her destiny after discovering she is telepathic.

Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan - alternate history version of WWI - fleeing prince Aleksander's and dressed-as-a-boy airman Deryn Sharpe's paths cross and they experience the outbreak of WWI. Not solely about a female character, but the book alternates between their views.

Marie Rutkowski's Cabinet of Wonders - Petra Kronos goes on a quest to Prague to get her father's stolen eyes back.

Current Mood: excited

53.

Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum oder: Wie Gewalt entstehen und wohin sie führen kann (The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, Or: how violence develops and where it can lead), by Heinrich Böll.
Independent divorcée Katharina Blum meets a bankrobber, falls in love, has an affair in the Germany of the seventies. The most influential tabloid react with a very intrusive smear campaign claiming that she's knowingly harboured a criminal and slept around a lot which destroys her reputation, causes several threatening and molesting phone calls and eventually leads to her shooting the journalist heading the campaign when he molests her.
I like Heinrich Böll, I liked this book. What disconcerted me in the lessons I've visited that were about this book is how much they tend to downplay the sexual violence, which was frustrating to watch.

54.

Die Feuerzangenbowle, by Heinrich Spoerl and Hans Reimann.
Distinguished writer Dr. Hans Pfeiffer attends a party at which a lot of the title drink is consumed and his equally distinguished friends reminisce and share nostalgic stories about their school days and the tricks they played on their teachers. This causes him to lament the fact that he has never attended a school and a drunk plan is hatched for him to attend school. He does and gets to experience this indispensible chapter in life, play tricks on teachers, and otherwise experience school life first-hand.
Though it does have some serious issues I love both this book (the inscription! "Dieser Roman ist ein Loblied auf die Schule, aber es ist möglich, dass die Schule es nicht merkt" - roughly, "This novel is an encomium on school education, but it is possible that school educators will not notice this") and also the 1944 movie, in spite even of the Nazi overtones and the chilling circumstances of the production. I consider both book and movie essential for an understanding of contemporary German culture because of all the issues this touches, which is why I find it odd that it hasn't been translated.

Catching up with my Rachel Maddow Show viewing I find this interview with this person hell-bent on believing that gays are recruited and that those doing the recruiting deserve to die. He therefore proposed the famous Ugandan bill which says that gay people should face prison sentences and death sentences.

Proceed with care. I don't even know how to react to this.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Current Mood: speechless
Current Location: Germany, Bremen

I found these ridiculously easy paper stars on the internets (German here) and I'm using them for a mobile for my window.

One Din A4 page is good for about 13 stars, btw.

I'm thinking about putting something like this in the centre:

Now I only need some fishing line to attach this to my window frame.

Do any of you have more ideas for quick and easy window decoration? I still need something for my kitchen window.

Current Mood: creative

The Rules:
Don't take too long to think about it.
Fifteen fictional characters (television, films, plays, books, comics) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.

Granny Weatherwax
Minerva McGonagall
Ms Hardbroom (from the Worst Witch series)
Elphaba
Ronja Robbersdaughter
Sherlock Holmes
Hazel (from Watership Down)
Spock
Alfred J. Prufrock
Severus Snape
Brutha (from Small Gods)
Pater Brown
Havelock Vetinari
Dirk Matthies (from Großstadtrevier, a German series about a team of police officers fighting crime in Hamburg's red light district)
Jane Eyre

Given the fact that I disliked reading books about female characters until my late teens because of the abundant and inescapable love plots (after that I realised they were inevitable because female characters Have. To fall. In love.) it's great to see that there are so many female characters who do make the list.

EDIT: ( characters that I had to cut or forgot about... )

The endless amounts of white, fluffy snow! now that I get to enjoy it from inside)! Reading "A Child's Christmas in Wales" aloud three times must have worked some kind of charm.
Going to Ikea with N. and coming home with stuff we don't really need. Like this mirror and these covers. I'm thinking about this lamp, too, but I don't like the way you can see the lighbulb and I think I'm going to get a candle instead. Or this one, which is also pretty.
Föhn mich nicht zulooks like fun - pretty much all of this year's trainees have purchased this book which is apparently a humerous memoir of a bad trainee's exploits.
Looking forward to baking cookies tomorrow
The Horrible Histories series which can be found on YouTube. Have some Charles II:
This aritcle:
«The cultural genome: Google Books reveals traces of fame, censorship and changing languages»
Abstract: We constructed a corpus of digitized texts containing about 4% of all books ever printed. Analysis of this corpus enables us to investigate cultural trends quantitatively. We survey the vast terrain of "culturomics", focusing on linguistic and cultural phenomena that were reflected in the English language between 1800 and 2000. We show how this approach can provide insights about fields as diverse as lexicography, the evolution of grammar, collective memory, the adoption of technology, the pursuit of fame, censorship, and historical epidemiology. "Culturomics" extends the boundaries of rigorous quantitative inquiry to a wide array of new phenomena spanning the social sciences and the humanities. Entertaining summary here.

Summary with brief overview here.

Current Mood: full

I wish I were done for today. But no, there's still the oral report waiting to be finished and that other oral report and I haven't heard back from some of the people who volunteered yet.

Ever since I found ( this dub of 'We Didn't Start the Fire' set in Stormwind ) I've rediscovered Billy Joel, especially:

Current Mood: bouncy

Title: Scarred.
Rating: G
Credits: =cloaks's Vintage Texture Pack V, ~Eterea86's beautiful corner brushes.

Characters: Minerva McGonagall.
A/N: If you noticed the snitch in the other pictures you can see why this is one of her worst fears.

Whenever the summer had emptied the castle and the heat haze and sunlight preserved it in transient amber Minerva sat in her abandoned classroom with a glass of chilled wine, for one hour, looking at the studentless chairs.

Then the first war emptied some of them forever, as did the second; funerals were held, cemeteries filled.

She made two trips each November, wandering from grave to grave, leaving unheeded greetings, candles and remembered, and as the cold seeped into her bones a colder chill touched her: she feared another one might one day be for a member of her family.

Other parts in the series:

00. Cover

01. Loved

02. Timid

03. Daring

04. Proud

05. Careful

06. Playful

07. Brave

08. Reckless

09. Busy

10. Talented

11. Responsible

12. Impartial

13. Stern

14. Disappointed

15. Trusting

16. Scarred

Title: Trusting.
Rating: G
Credits: =cloaks's Vintage Texture Pack V, ~redheadstock's light brushes, ~Eterea86's beautiful corner brushes, and Hogwarts Crest, (C) Bloomsbury PLC.

Characters: Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape.

Trust him, had been Albus' parting words.

If it had not been for the mask, this would not have been a problem, but it remained a fact that this was no longer the student she had known. The casualness with which he held it was more unnerving than the story he told, of clandestine meetings in graveyards and carefully omitted, hinted-at horrors the mask was a silent witness to. Minerva was not certain how much she could believe of it, but she had never been with any of his stories.

His wand was still lying on the desk. The young man's gaze had been fixed on it as soon as he had sat down to answer her questions, though sometimes his curiously dark eyes had looked up and pinned her with that same intensity she knew of old. Never long, though, they stole back quickly, hungrily.

She remembered something and noticed his pose, hunched on the edge of the chair, the troubled student rather than the man she was supposed to hire as a teacher. The former Death Eater whom Albus trusted. She made a decision. There was the briefest flicker in his expression when her hand closed around his wand and she raised it to him, but it was gone when he realised what she was doing.

"I believe this is yours," she said, holding out his wand. When his hand closed around it, his shoulders lost their hunch and she gained a first idea of the man he had become since she had seen him last.

Although this had been the question she had begun the interview with she thought it best to start fresh. She had not been interviewing the person who would be taking the position.

"Why are you applying for the Potions position, Mr Snape?"

Other parts in the series:

00. Cover

01. Loved

02. Timid

03. Daring

04. Proud

05. Careful

06. Playful

07. Brave

08. Reckless

09. Busy

10. Talented

11. Responsible

12. Impartial

13. Stern

14. Disappointed

15. Trusting

16. Scarred

Title: Disappointed.
Rating: G
Credits: =cloaks's Vintage Texture Pack V, ~redheadstock's light brushes, ~Eterea86's beautiful corner brushes, and Hogwarts Crest, (C) Bloomsbury PLC.

Characters: Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape.

He was standing as close to the door as he dared, and his carefully blank expression reminded her of a much younger man. Albus had given her Snape's wand and told her what he thought viable options might be, but had left the final decision to her, as the Deputy had the right to veto staffing decisions. In this case, she was very close to believing that Albus actually meant that.

A Death Eater turned was unlikely enough, but the fact that it was Severus Snape made it even less so. Minerva turned first the wand and then the mask in her hands, looking at the eye holes, trying to imagine Severus Snape's eyes, so like Hagrid's, looking through them. She couldn’t, didn't want to.

After melting out of Albus' shadow he had silently remained standing next to the doorway, curiously poised for flight, face impassive. When Albus had swept out again Glaucus rustled his feathers and fixed large yellow eyes on him silently, waiting for the boy to move. The boy. The murderer. The Death Eater. The young man.

"What position are you applying for, Mr Snape?" she asked, even though she knew. The spectre had not said a word, she wanted to hear his voice.

"That of the Potions Master, Professor," he answered silkily, tone and stance as pointedly non-committal as his face.

"Come closer," she said.

He came to stand in front of her desk, ignoring the chair behind him, hands in his pockets like a boy she had known. This was not him, clearly. The mask was not the only evidence of that. He looked older, thinner, and she resisted the urge of offering bisquits or holding up the mask and demanding an explanation. Minerva also bit back the disappointment.

"Have a seat," she said instead.

Other parts in the series:

00. Cover

01. Loved

02. Timid

03. Daring

04. Proud

05. Careful

06. Playful

07. Brave

08. Reckless

09. Busy

10. Talented

11. Responsible