mothwing | Recent Entries

I just found this post on

queer_rage , and I remembered why I stopped following this speeding failtrain. Ann Somerville continues to annoy me. Ever since Lambda Fail, the more I read about and by m/m writers, the less patience I have for these straight women (well, female and straight male M/M writers in general, to be honest) and their quest to write male-on-male porn or ~romance~ in peace. This "romance" usually is a type of porn, too, the only difference being that the emotional vulnerability of the characters is fetishized rather than their sexuality.

EDIT: I think it'd be a good idea to edit this because what has started out as a rant in response to reading a blog entry has grown into something completely different, so I ought to be making my points more concisely on here to save everybody from digging through the comments.

( Original reaction to Ann Somerville's post - a rant. )

For clarification, here is a summary of my problems with the M/M genre specifically (as opposed to slash within fanfic, which is a different kettle of fish in my opinion):

Good intentions can have bad outcomes. ( Read more... )

Members of a majority writing about a minority is always problematic. ( Read more... )

Gay characters in stories written by straight people in particular are problematic, because ( Read more... )

gayness is not a metaphor for straight experience ( Read more... )

the fetishisation of gay men is wrong. ( Read more... )

Even though exploring female sexuality is necessary and good, doing so through gay romance is troubling. ( Read more... )

Fiction is fiction, reality is reality: it's not that simple.( Read more... )

Claiming that writing m/m is an LGBT activism is completely out there. ( Read more... )

Tone arguments used against gay critics are wrong. ( Read more... )

The genre is not subversive, it's porn. And it does not subvert gender roles. ( Read more... )

So, what am I saying to you M/M writers? You can, of course, write whatever you want and no one can keep you from it.
I would like you to know what it means that you are writing, however, and critically and thoroughly examine why you are writing a minority and what implications your writing may have for the minority you are writing about.

Current Mood: nauseated

Some of my tutees who will be taking their exams in '11 have "The Media" as a topic. Since I have the good fortune of teaching them again today (grumble. Why can't the holidays last until Monday, huh?), I'm looking into texts to supplement their reading as preparation for their exams for those who better at content and might be needing the extra edge if I can't get them up to scratch in written expression until February '11.

I can't say I'm terribly creative when it comes to texts they can use, especially since I don't know yet what their teachers are going to make of the topic, but I think they all will want to talk about media and politics, therefore I wish they could read Metaphors Can Kill I and/or Metaphors and War, Again by George Lakoff and and could watch this lecture by the same:

Current Mood: chipper

They're still there!! This probably should not excite me as much as it does, but I still stop to point them out to Crocky whenever I spot some that look particularly impressive.

And they are very pretty, although we keep thinking whether it might not be a good idea scrape them off, lest they half-melt, fall, and hurt someone five storeys below.

( More icicles... )

Current Mood: excited
Current Location: Germany, Hanover

YES.

Our printer is working again. Completely without taking it apart (again), or unscrewing bits that look as though they are not meant to be unscrewed.

Now I can finally print out the article I need to read tonight and some of the free, easy scores that I found on the interwebs for piano beginners. It's ridiculous how elated this makes me feel.

What's your greatest triumph over a technological foe?

Current Mood: ecstatic

You could impale someone with the ones that are hanging in front of my bedroom window:

( In comparison to our window: )

Too bad everything seems to be thawing out there.

Current Mood: cheerful

Trawling the internet in search for an article (which I'll have to pick up at the uni library. No e-copies for this one), I found this workbook that is supposed to up the readers' vocabulary in preparation for US standardised tests:

Now, I agree that this series is God's Gift to ESL teachers because everybody, or at least every single one of my wee tutees over the age of fourteen, have read it in English - even if they're really weak learners, so I agree, this can be a powerful teaching tool and motivator to get kids interested in reading a book in a foreign language. Learners.

I didn't know native speakers needed to revise their knowledge of the meaning of "marble", "murmur", or "butterscotch" for their SAT scores so badly that there needs to be a workbook.

Current Mood: curious

Half-way through 2009, I abandoned the project of keeping track because I was busy with other things. This is an attempt to reconstruct what I have been reading that year.

A Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England, Ian Mortimer
Homosexualität und Crossdressing im Mittelalter, Stefan Micheler
Making Money, Terry Pratchett
Going Postal, Terry Pratchett
The Black Jewels Trilogy, by Anne Bishop
Schwuler Osten - Homosexuelle Männer in der DDR, by Kurt Starke
Harvard's Secret Court, by William Wight
Die Stumme Sünde - Homosexualität im Mittelalter, by Brigitte Spreizer
Sodom und Gomorrha - zur Alltagswirklichkeit der Verfolgung Homosexueller im Mittelalter, by Bernd-Ulrich Hergemüller
Guards! Guards! - The Play. Adapted by Stephen Briggs
Wyrd Sisters - The Play, adapted by Stephen Briggs
Thud!, by Terry Pratchett
The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathan Stroud
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew, by Daniel Pool
Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold!, by Terry Brooks
Dragonflight, by Anne McCaffrey
The Golem's Eye, by Jonathan Stroud
Ptolemy's Gate, by Jonathan Stroud
Nation, by Terry Pratchett
Men at Arms, by Terry Pratchett
Feet of Clay, by Terry Pratchett
Graceling, by Kristin Cashore <- read this book. You won't regret it.
Fire, by Kristin Cashore
Victorian London, by Liza Picard. In large parts, that is.
Fighting Talk, by James Inglis.
Privilege: A Reader, Michael Kimmel.
John Donne: Selected Letters, by P.M. Oliver (ed.)
John Donne: The Reformed Soul: A Novel, by John Stubbs.
Brown Angels, by Walter Dean Myers <- This is a real treasure.
Push, by Sapphire. Brutal at times, but definitely worth reading!
Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, by David Sedaris
Blonde Roots, by Bernadine Evaresto.
The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry, by Gerard Moore (ed.)
The Princess Bride, by William Goldman
The Nixie's Song, by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
A Giant Problem, by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
The Wyrm King, by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi
The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis
Circle of Magic: Sandry's Book, by Tamora Pierce
Circle of Magic: Tris's Book, by Tamora Pierce
Circle of Magic: Daja's Book, by Tamora Pierce
Circle of Magic: Briar's Book, by Tamora Pierce
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon
Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his son, by David Roberts (ed.)
Renaissance Self-Fashioning, by Stephen Greenblatt
The First and Second Dalhousie Manuscripts, Ernest Sullivan (ed.)
When Jeff Comes Home, by Catherine Atkins
Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett.
Whipping Girl, by Julia Serano. <- You need to read this book.

There are more, but I can't seem to remember them right now. Most of them I did not buy but borrowed at various libraries, so it's hard to remember which book I read when.

Current Mood: annoyed

Have a great start into the new year!

I hope that 2010 will treat you kindly.

( Whee, fireworks )

Current Mood: cheerful

It's still snowing. It started yesterday evening, and even though the heating's been on all through the night in the living room, the snow on our skylight is several centimeters thick. It doesn't look as though it's going to stop anytime soon, either. I don't really feel like going to look at the fireworks, I must say.

It's been snowing for hours this morning and I had to traipse through the blizzard to fetch some groceries. Optimistically, I went without a hat, only to wish I had miniature windscreen wipers on my glasses, blegh. I nearly ran into two people on my way to the shops because I couldn't see anything but my feet because snow kept getting behind my glasses. In the end, I got myself a hat and looked like a bullfinch (rather than a bulldyke, snerk) in my red coat, black hat, and greying scarf.

( Snow in the inner city (16) )

Current Mood: cold

Maybe I've come down with a series case of the dumb, but I don't get this show. It does bend over backwards to include a whole rainbow of minorities and then still goes out of its way to still make the straight, white, pretty, able-bodied and cisgendered people, usually males, end up in the main character slots and the administrative roles.

It's like watching a compass needle that's made out of the metal that comprises a white, able-bodied, cisgendered, heterosexual, male audience. In this case, it's been shaken up pretty badly by the presence of so many weird and non-white people, but as each episode progresses, you can watch the WACHM main character overcome adversity! I suppose that the show is meant to satirize this fact (or so I hope), but as a satire of other High School TV shows, it does not do a very good job.

Unless "satire" now means "take the storyline you wanted to write, notice that it's stereotypical, slightly exaggerate the stereotypes, let audience, who also doesn't know what "satire" means, think that your show must be a satire of ... well, something. It's clear that they don't mean this, right? That's why it's so exaggerated. Right?

Well, no. A "satire" is more complex than that. It usually focuses on individual shortcomings of the thing it's meant to satirize and exaggerate them with the goal of exposing these shortcomings. I don't see that done very convicingly in that show. If making fun at other High School stereotypes was not their goal, I don't understand what in this series is supposed to do, apart from trying to get more WACHM viewers interested in their local Glee club, because obviously, that's the only target audience that's represented in a mildly respectful way. If that was the intention, well done! And now piss off!

Stürmen oder schnei'n,
Denn du strahlst ja selber
Wie der Sonnenschein.
Heut ist dein Geburtstag,
Darum feiern wir,
Alle deine Freunde
Freuen sich mit dir,
Alle deine Freunde
Freuen sich mit dir.

Wie schön dass du geboren bist,
Wir hätten dich sonst sehr vermisst.
Wie schön dass wir beisammen sind,
Wir gratulieren dir,

angie_21_237 !

Current Mood: cheerful

The post I made recently on my qualms with the difficulties many Fantasy writers seem to experience while writing female characters resulted in most amazing recommendations from the community I posted it in.

I thought I'd share:

( SF/F books which feature convincing female characters )
... good thing I got a gift certificate for Amazon for Christmas. I don't even know what to buy first. I'll probably start with checking the library for what they yield.

If you have read a Fantasy book, novel or otherwise, which had a particularly convincing female character, please do comment here. I'm really curious as to what people have read and liked when it comes to strong and/or convincing female characters.

Current Mood: cheerful

Day 01 → Your favourite song
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
~~Day 25 → Your day, in great de~~tail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail

My life is not interesting enough to warrant a lot of detail, but here is the gist:

Monday: We slept in and had a very comfy breakfast together, which was lovely. In the afternoon I had my last lesson for the week! I showed my student what she could do at home to improve, under the erroneous assumption that she'd probably have some time now before the new semester kicks off in February. Wrong. Here, the new semester starts in January directly, and they have an exam at the end of the month. We had a look at the upcoming topics instead. In the evening, Crocky and I planned the rest of the week and lounged around, reading together.

Tuesday: Crocky and I had breakfast together and got some housework done before she headed off to her course and I prepared my lesson for the afternoon. I thought this would be the day of my last lesson, but this was not the case - my student had cancelled on me and I had missed her e-mail. Well. Crocky returned with the groceries and we started preparing dough, but it turned out that the vegetable fat we were using caused the dough to be too thin and too brittle once baked, so instead of six trays of glorious cookies we ended up with six trays of barely done mush that fell apart as soon as we looked at it. It was a complete mess. My attempts at cinnamon stars with sesame mush instead of ground almonds worked out beautifully, though, and I managed to make two trays of these. In the evening, we watched The Princess and the Frog.

Wednesday : What made this day specifically annoying was that the phone kept ringing at the worst possible moments, all day long. It was also the day we had picked to celebrate Christmas together, given that we'd head off to our families the next day. Well. First my brother called, sharing the experience of his driving lesson. It was interesting, but by then, the clock was ticking, because we were baking and Crocky had to leave soon after he called. We had gotten up early and started baking - preparing dough with silly food-colours which caused the dough to look sickly pink, blue and green. After my brother, S. called, enquiring about the wedding.
The cookies turned out well, though, and we ended up with four trays of multicoloured sugar cookies, another tray of cinnamon stars, and two trays of doggie-shaped chocolate cookies for my mother. Crocky had to head off to theatre and a church service accompanied by her choir and I did the doggies as well as chocolate chip cookies, which I knew my family would like. An unidentified number called two times, while I was stuck in the oven and in the shower respectively. Crocky's Dad called just as I was balancing two trays of cookies on top of each other, trying to get them into the living room and I missed him, too. Crocky returned in the evening and we decorated our sugar cookies and fell into bed, exhausted. Shortly after, my brother called, asking about whether I wanted to have soup the next day, then Crocky's sisters, enquiring about her exact arrival time. Blegh, family.

Thursday: Crocky had to get up early to catch her train, and I sat around at home, waiting for my father who had offered to take me with him, since Hannover is on the way for him when he drives to Hamburg, anyway. I studied a bit, did a daily dungeon, hung around, tidied up. We left at around twelve, had lunch together at a little restaurant on the way and arrived at home at around four.
My brother and I decorated the tree, we had tea together, handing out presents, then, a while later, had fondue. In the evening, my brother and I discussed magnetism, tesla coils, and quantum mechanics.

Friday: see below - as described yesterday.

Saturday: I hung around all day, studying and gaming during the breaks, avoiding the huge, huuuge pile of dishes still left over from our baking escapades.

Sunday - ?? The return of my soon-to-be-wife, hopefully. More studying. Probably doing the dishes.

My life is so damned interesting.

Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Current Mood: bored

As is always the case with the more recent books I felt rather apprehensive towards this one. My worries were rather unfounded. It is not a masterpiece compared to many of the books he wrote in the late nineties which I loved, but it does work, and the characters he introduces are charming.
Romeo and Juliet and football. Yes.
Lady Margolotta. I really like her, but I think I liked her more as an éminence grise. I am not quite clear on why she needed to be bested by Glenda, but she is as charming as ever.
Lord Vetinari seems to suffer from a spell of Villain Decay, or there is a lot more to Glenda than meets the eye, whose character puzzled me.
I love Madame Sharn and Pepe and all their gender complicatedness.
Dwarf fashion. Dwarf fashion! Glittering pick-axes just in case the dwarf in question spots a seam and just can't help herself! Hyperfeminine assecories self-confidently invading a traditionally hypermasculine culture. Take that, femmephobia.
Speaking of which, what does bother me is the recurring coincidence of being dense as a brick and unbelievably stunning. I am about to forgive him because of the utter awesomeness of his other female characters as well as the fact that she is not the only woman who is good-looking, while she is definitely one fo the few dense ones.
It's always good to see Ridcully again.
Ponder <3. Although it's sad to see that he managed to liberate himself somewhat from the Archchancellor, I rather enjoyed their original relationship.
Nutt. I'm fairly meh about him apart from in his function as a love interest for Glenda. They are so cute together.
Trevor. Equally meh.
Repetitions, gnuh. I wonder what went wrong there. Would it really have hurt to cross out a few "I am an Orc"s or "but I promised my old Mum"'s? These lines were repeated so often that they really annoyed me towards the end.

Current Mood: calm

I have been reading Fantasy written by English and American authors ever since I was fourteen. It is my favourite genre, and most of my favourite books are Fantasy books. This genre was my cure for sadness, loneliness, and boredom ever since I discovered it. And even though I love that genre and spend quite an amount of time defending its literary merits, most of the writers who do write Fantasy suck at the same thing, keep on sucking and make pots of money while doing so. Especially male writers are, when it comes to their few female characters, by and large, lazy, unapologetic morons uninterested in any kind of realism.

The only male Fantasy writers I can think of who manages believable female characters are Gregory Maguire and Terry Pratchett (and I'm grateful if any of you can point me towards others who manage to not fail). It never ceases to amaze me that it would be so bloody hard to write about human beings that, given that they easily comprise fifty percent of the population, one is certain to have interacted with at some point. Both do have strong female characters that are strong on their own terms without necessarily being eye-candy or supporters of male characters only. What is more depressing is that many female writers copy those parts of the genre that are hell-bent on turning female characters into brainless, decorative, supportive tokens (Anne McCaffrey ARFFF).

Even readers with a background in feminism seem so depressingly easily pleased and make a point of noting that there are female characters who are not decoration as soon as they are there at all. As long as these characters exist, as long as they do anything at all, writers get kudos for including "strong female characters". I think that term has been used so often it has been rendered meaningless. If they do feature "strong female characters", one or two strong female characters that are included for whatever reason are really not enough to tip the balance for the rest of the book. If, throughout the story, female characters are treated as decoration, pieces of flesh or house elves, even the most bad-ass female will not rectify the fail when it comes to the other characters (looking at you again, Anne McCaffrey).

And fandom, which in many cases easily offers a break from canon fails due to the creativeness of readers, is no help here. Judging by a rough look at numbers of fanfiction submissions by pairing especially with regards to Harry Potter, most female readers don't seem to care as long as there are ~* hawt *~ male characters they can write trivial, character-exploring fanfiction about that centres on one taking care of the emotional and sexual needs of the other. Only about male characters, mind, because "the female characters in that fandom are so uninteresting". A baffling excuse, given the creative self-confidence of fandom - fandoms that manage to write novel-length stories about characters that never spoke more than three sentences together in a novel ought not to have a problem with that and welcome the challenge.

But apparently, characters tainted by femaleness are not worth writing or thinking about, because there are no interesting stories to tell about women that aren't about the fact that they are women in a male world, and because fetishizing male-on-male interaction is just "more interesting"/"my personal preference".

Current Mood: annoyed

My day was pretty uneventful, but here goes, anyway.
I got up at around 8:15, having slept in. I showered, went downstairs to read articles for my upcoming exam.
At around 9:30, I went upstairs to see whether there'd be any breakfast together. My brother was still asleep, my grandmother already having breakfast, my mother walking the dog. I went back down again and continued reading.
At 12:30, I went back up to search for my family. My brother had just gotten up and was slouching into the bathroom, and it turned out that my mother was ill. We prepared the raclette grill and cheese, but she felt really ill, so she returned to bed and I hung around, waiting for my family to turn up.
My brother, father and I had lunch together, my grandma having decided she'd prefer eating in her room - she still finds it uncomfortable to eat sitting up for long periods of time, so she preferred lying down quickly afterwards. After lunch, my brother and I tidied up the kitchen, did the laundry, and looked at funny videos together online.
Then, we walked the dog in the melting snow outside, and returned just as the snow had managed to turn my feet into cold, wet icecubes.
An hour later, my father gave me a lift to the station and I returned home. I arrived home at around a quarter past eight and finished my chapter in my literary history. I did some writing and took a few photos with my macro lense.
Long before I fell asleep I lay in the bed, listening to an audio book, relaxing in the dark.

Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 01 → Your favourite song
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy

FREE RICE, the awesome website which offers a vocabulary-related word game and donating rice to people who need it. Check it out!

Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Current Mood: calm

Post the first line of the first post of the month for all twelve months.

January: And the dentist says: Caries under the freaking filling that was in the tooth.

February: Screw the quests there (in Thor Modan).

March: I found this today: The Fantasy Novelist's Exam, by David J. Parker

April: I am practising baking cupcakes because I want to bake Crocky's brass players something nice because they always bake, and my mother's birthday is today and I want to bake her some tasty cupcakes, albeit less chocolatey, because I think she would prefer fruit instead of a chocolate explosion.

May: Another reason to love this city is being woken up by a fifty-piece marching band parading past our window, then the world music type drums of the counter-demonstration coming the other way and making the walls shake, the seeing all our neighbours at once as they're cramming their faces against the windows to catch a glimpse, and holding on to the warm shape of my girlfriend's back as she hangs herself out of the window to catch a glimpse of the band before they vanish around the corner of the street.

June: Having had lots of fun with the Zeit.de version of it, I'm currently playing around with the "EU Profiler".

July: I've been searching for fresh peppermint plants for ages, but even though they always have rosemary and sage in stock our shops never offered any.

August: I found this on YouTube yesterday.

September: Yesterday, Crocky and I went to SeaWorld, and it's a beautiful place.

Oktober: A couple of weeks ago I went on an excursion with a group of hunters from Hamburg to see the wild ponies in Dülmen.

November: At the end of December, Crocky and I are going to get an eigentragene Lebenspartnerschaft.

December: One of the downsides of studying at home is that I get far too distracted.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Hannover Mitte

~~~

~~~

Happy Christmas to all of you!

Current Mood: calm

Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Current Mood: bored

I discovered this in this review of Precious, the movie based on Sapphire's novel Push (which is excellent, but I haven't found the time to review it yet) and just wanted to share, because it is hilarious and reminded me of rather too many movies I watched in the past:

Current Mood: amused

The place where I met most of my dear flist, the place where Crocky and I shared our love for HP-related things online.

Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Current Mood: nostalgic

120g brown sugar,
120g white sugar (yes, that much. I never use that much, just one of them does the job)
200g margarine
2 eggs (which you don't need)
baking soda (Natrium!)
380f flour
200g chocolate (100g are enough, though).

Bake for 13min at 160-180°C. Very tasty.

Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 01 → Your favourite song
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours

Calligraphy. I'm learning roundhand at the moment, and I can do several blackletter fonts (the Schwabacher being my favourite), although I am hopeless at really fancy majuscules.

Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

On Wednesday, I went around my resolution not to log on during the week apart from on Friday night to have a look at the Frozen Halls, and oh, they were fun. They weren't over as quickly as dungeons are these days, we actually had to make sure and avoid pulling together the entire room and make sure we deal with mobs one group at a time. Fun times.

What made this all the more enjoyable was the fact that Recount decided to die on me and thus I could not even see potentially sucking as I plodded through unknown rooms and fought unknown bosses whom I had only ever read about. Of course we wiped, and of course I died, most annoyingly, because I wasn't quick enough to avoid Ick's poison nova. Twice. The best part about the second time is that I was battle rezzed by our druid just before we wiped. We did make it through the first two dungeons and did not dare doing the third. I did get a nice, shiny souvenir, though.

I've only attempted Halls of Reflection once so far, and I don't really know how anyone can survive that one. Our damage clearly wasn't good enough (me being the best DD with 3.3-3.4k damage - we didn't stand a chance), and I am not sure how our healer managed to heal us without going OOM half-way through. I'm looking forward to doing this with a good healer and good DDs - it's pretty clear what people are supposed to be doing, I'm just not quite clear on how to get there, damage-wise.

Still, I do like this instance, even though it's only because I really enjoyed the Sylvanas sequence - I've had a soft spot for the Banshee queen ever since I first played WarCraft III (not so much a fan of her outfit, though. Even though I loved the new model when it first came out and still think she's very nice-looking, but I don't think her tummy needs to bare to achieve that. And don't get me started on the armour - it looks so uncomfortable).

Also, I love the random dungeon finder tool. I've never had so much fun in dungeons in ages, and it makes emblem collecting really easy. Only the time spent in the queue could be a lot shorter.Still, it means that I've finally got my emerald and ruby void achievement, doing this. Fun.

... And obviously, I like procrastinating as much as ever. I'll go have a very late supper now.

Current Mood: cold

-13°C.

SO COLD. At least there's snow, but it's too cold to enjoy it much, and for some reason, the heating in our bedroom, while doing its best, is not warm enough to heat up the room entirely, which makes our nights very chilly.

( 7 )

Current Mood: cold

Day 01 → Your favourite song
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours

I am really good at storing insignificant details in my brain for a large amount of time. This is good when it comes to literary analysis, really bad when it comes to fights.

Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Current Mood: bored

Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

So it's not so bright outside because I overslept due to fluiness, but because of the snow!

I'm glad I don't have to work outside today more than ever. Even inside it's festively chilly around here. Our heating does its best, but it doesn't really succeed in heating our bedroom entirely nonetheless and I'm kept up by the sounds it makes half the night.

( +3 )

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: Hannover, Mitte

I rediscovered this on Youtube today. It's a French children's series from the olden days on the body which I watched religiously. There were series by the same producers on history, inventions, space, and other subjects. They were fun to watch and taught me more about the different jobs the individual parts of the body have for it than any biology lesson I ever had later on.

Current Mood: amused

Day 01 → Your favourite song
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)

This is really trite, but I really do like the Lübecker Totentanz by Berndt Notke.

Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

German:

Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 01 → Your favourite song
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic

I'd like to recommend A Sue's Story by Resourceful Idiot. One of the best and most entertaining fics I've ever read.

Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

We had a cookie baking-and-decorating marathon on Sunday. A few of the guys from the theatre group came round to see us and between the five of us we baked and decorated eight trays of cookies for us and for the pre-Christmas rehearsal on Wednesday. We had brought out the green food colouring for the occasion and finally had an excuse to use the shiny new cookie cutters we bought on the Christmas market two weeks ago.

And what could be more festive than green Apatosauri, chocolaty clefs, notes, butterflies, dogs and bats? Oh, and some stars, too.

I was so busy organising the actual baking and arranging the trays in the oven that my cookies did not turn out as absolutely gorgeous as the ones of the others, who were working wonders with icing, sprinkles, and especially the lilac sugar colour. Except for S., who formed a whole zoo with the help of the dog shape. We understood how she got the goat - slightly shorter tail because of a spot of drier dough, slightly odd ears - even the seal made sense, somehow - hind legs pressed together, the head being roughly the same shape, anyway - but we have no idea how she got to the cock, the mouse or the elephant.

( Really festive cookies )

Current Mood: accomplished

O M G W E R E W O L V E S ! ! ! !

Which was about my first reaction to finding that movie on what I consider to be the German Netflix. Well. Find my more coherent review below.

( Read more... )

So, fun to watch in spite of seriously creepy overtones.

Current Mood: content

Day 01 → Your favourite song
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. All of it.

Other than that, I'd really recommend Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Current Mood: bored

We hope you had a very happy birthday, Bron!!

Current Mood: embarrassed

Day 01 → Your favourite song
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Fancy sadly as yet untickled. I'll put something in here later.

Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Day 01 → Your favourite song
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently

I've posted this one before (taken in November), and I still like it more than other pictures of me taken after that one.

Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Current Mood: lazy

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
but the candles are so delightful
Our lights are turned down low,
our CLFs don't afford a brighter glow.

Current Mood: silly

~~ * ~~

~~ * ~~

Current Mood: busy

Eastern Skye. Most beautiful place on the planet.

From our short days on Skye back in 2006. The Highlands are absolutely beautiful, and I fell in love with the surrounding islands as quickly as I thought I would. Seven great days, and worth every minute, even in spite of the fact that I would not hear the end that week of happiness even years later. I did have regrets that I had taken that brief time out back then at all when I found myself fighting about this week for months on ends even years later.

Still. A week worth spending.

When I think about it now, it's the only kind of happiness I knew before I moved in with Crocky - happiness, in spite of. In spite of fights, in spite of a bad conscience, in spite of subsequent regrets. And even today, considering the reaction of my grandmother and other family members, there are many points in which my happiness is still happiness - in spite of.

Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Current Mood: nostalgic

I miss my cat. :(

Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Current Mood: calm

Dear Reader

Baudelaire considers you his brother,
and Fielding calls out to you every few paragraphs
as if to make sure you have not closed the book,
and now I am summoning you up again,
attentive ghost, dark silent figure standing
in the doorway of these words.

Pope welcomes you into the glow of his study,
takes down a leather-bound Ovid to show you.
Tennyson lifts the latch to a moated garden,
and with Yeats you lean against a broken pear tree,
the day hooded by low clouds.

But now you are here with me,
composed in the open field of this page,
no room or manicured garden to enclose us,
no Zeitgeist marching in the background,
no heavy ethos thrown over us like a cloak.

Instead, our meeting is so brief and accidental,
unnoticed by the monocled eye of History,
you could be the man I held the door for
this morning at the bank or post office
or the one who wrapped my speckled fish.
You could be someone I passed on the street
or the face behind the wheel of an oncoming car.

The sunlight flashes off your windshield,
and when I look up into the small, posted mirror,
I watch you diminish—my echo, my twin—
and vanish around a curve in this whip
of a road we can't help traveling together.

~ Billy Collins.

Anyway, back to reading up on the fate of poetry in the foreign language classroom, its uses and methods for teaching it to the unsuspecting student.

Current Mood: cynical

Our pets. ♥
I've grown up with our dogs and our zoo, and the time I've been living with Crocky is the longest time I've been without pets. I miss living with animals, and I get sad whenever I think of all the poor animals at the shelter. I wanted to volunteer at the local shelter so I could help making their lives better, but volunteering is not as easy as I thought it would be - they don't seem to take volunteers who help out with the pets, apparently, and since I'm broke I'd rather donate time and walk the dogs or pet the cats than money.

Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Current Mood: nostalgic

So, after hours of getting cramps in my hand doing my English Roundhand exercises I googled how other people manage to avoid that, only to find oblique pens and elbow nibs.

Bloody cheats.

I'm getting my flourishes right, but I still have no idea how to get the letters right without using one of those devices that I can only try to get a hold on on Monday. It said on a German site that ~~if you dislocate your hand~~ "with a little practice", it should work out, anyway.

I'm still waiting for that to happen.

Current Mood: paint-speckled

Day 01 → Your favourite song
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy: one of my favourite Christmas Carols:

What's yours?

Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Three things I learned today:

1. I hate pointed nibs with a passion.
2. Getting ornaments right is hard.
3. Roundhand will be horrible.

I ought to stick to Carolingian minuscules and my broad nib.

Oh, and another thing I wasn't aware of: while I associate Western calligraphy with fancy lettering from the past, the blogosphere's hivemind seems to file it under "things to think about when planning your wedding invitations".

Huh.

Current Mood: ink-soaked

Day 01 → Your favourite song
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book
Day 05 → Your favourite quote

I don't really like quotes. For a long time, it used to be, "All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.". I was a depressed teenager.

It's probably this passage from Carpe Jugulum, though:

"'There's no greys, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.'
'It's a lot more complicated than that-'
'No. It ain't. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they're getting worried that they won't like the truth. People as things, that's where it starts.'
'Oh, I'm sure there are worse crimes-'
'But they starts with thinking about people as things.'"

Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Current Mood: calm

Day 01 → Your favourite song
Day 02 → Your favourite movie
Day 03 → Your favourite television program
Day 04 → Your favourite book

Can't pick just one of the Discworld novels, but in general, I prefer the Witches and the Watch series to the Wizards, and most of the books he wrote before 2000 to the later ones (the Wee Free Men series being a very notable exception).

Day 05 → Your favourite quote
Day 06 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 07 → A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 → A photo that makes you angry/sad
Day 09 → A photo you took
Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago
Day 11 → A photo of you taken recently
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobbie of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy

Profile

Mothwing

Books

January 2022

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31

Page Summary

Style Credit

Style: Fruit Salad for Leftovers by sforzinda

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Thursday, February 26th, 2026 04:34 am

Uton we hycgan hwær we ham agen, ond þonne geþencan hu we þider cumen

Recent Entries

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags