Green Eggs and Codfisch

brr @ 2009-06-05T17:57:00

2009-06-05T16:07:27Z

Oh, this is awful. I just stupidly realized that the word in German meaning 'cod', which is kabeljau, which I've been using (completely randomly) for my (mostly nonexistent) writing and other such nonsense, as well as my title and my del.icio.us (codfisch), this whole recurring image of cod (which I've never eaten before, being vegetarian for so long, and never having any links in particular to fish except that strange childhood obsession with drawing a series of simplistic "Dreams of a Dead Fish" on whatever paper I could find, which were strange doodles of an upside down, X-eyed fish with 'dreams' above him and usually a plaque which stated 'fish' or something), which was based on the word kabeljau because I LIKED it and thought it was a wondrous word, in spelling and unusualness and pronouniation.... isn't pronounced how I initially thought it to be pronounced. Kah-bell-jau (hard j, like giraffe or Jack). Of course not. In German, a j is always very soft, not like a j at all but a y. Ja. Jungen. Jahre. Jedenfalls.

Kabeljau. Kabel-yow.

I am possibly so ridiculously depressed, not even the pleasure of writing that incredibly long, grammatically-incorrect run-on sentence above could erase the pain of mispronouncing such an amazing word.

saviour siblings?

2009-06-05T11:45:09Z

So what is it with saviour siblings? I knew what they were, mainly from My Sister's Keeper which my sister (of course) kept pushing upon me to read, but I didn't know there was an official term for it, or that people actually DID have children whose sole purpose on Earth is to provide bodily materials for a sick relative. In my opinion this is completely inhumane. A person should be born for themselves, not to be used. From one side, refusing to let your body be used like that--forfeiting activities which would be harmful not because they are worried about your own safety, but the safety of your sibling should YOU not be available for them, and allowing them to take tissues and bone marrow and organs and anything else--seems selfish, like you don't care enough about your sibling to be their "saviour". But it's much more selfish of them to expect you to give yourself up, give your body up, for them.

It's horribly cruel for me to say this, but if someone is going to die, if they have a diease that you cannot escape from, don't. If you have leukemia or cancer and there is no hope for you to live except by taking body parts from someone else for the rest of your life, then why are you trying so hard? You can't hold onto a life you've already lost.

xena icon post!

2009-06-02T19:38:17Z

13 Xena
2 Gabrielle
2 Aphrodite
2 Ephiny
3 Xena/Gabrielle
4 Lucy Lawless

( I could probably just get up there behind you... )

Challenge!

2009-05-27T19:03:57Z

Woo, International Day of Femslash Challenge!

Actually, I... I have no idea when the International Day of Femslash is. Sometime in July--tragically not on my birthday.

That Scotty/Spock should be up sometime, I promise!

... Along with all the OTHER fics I've promised/started to write.

There has to be a word stronger than "procrastinator" for me. D:

re: drunken mistake

2009-05-24T15:04:56Z

Damn.

Now I've made a drunken mistake. A big one.

Life is horrible.

communication issues

2009-05-22T20:11:19Z

Why do people always insist upon pretending that things never happen when they do? No one ever drunkenly kiss someone and then actually talks about it afterward, it seems. It always has to be "we both know it happened, and we both know that the other knows, but let's just pretend like it didn't happen, okay?". It's getting old. Actual communication would be nice, thanks.

I mean, I would honestly like to know if I was your drunken mistake or not.

Scotty and Spock

2009-05-19T04:56:51Z

I don't suppose anyone has a good photo of the two of them together?

I'm writing a Scotty/Spock, and THAT is something I never thought I'd say.

Trekmania!

2009-05-18T17:44:29Z

Suddenly Star Trek is like The Hot Thing. Even--or should I say, especially--amongst people who have never even seen any of the other series. A vicious, arrogant part of me hates the people who think they can just swoop in and be "New Star Trek fans", the same people who dissed the other, equally brilliant series as being geeky. I wouldn't say I'm DS9's biggest fan, but dammit, at least I watched it before I formed that opinion! And Voyager is glorious, hands down. But apparently people care more about Bones and Kirk and Spock and Chekov more than Chakotay, Tom Paris, Tuvok, and the holographic doctor.

*sigh* This was not meant to be a bitchfest.

At least, because of all the new Trek fic which has been cropping up in the past week or so, I have had ample opportunities to use my variety of Voyager icons, especially the "Little Ship Big Secrets" one. Icon space is really going to be the reason why I eventually buy a DW account. I can't stand being limited to six.

good morning

2009-05-17T07:49:56Z

I've got invite codes! Woaw. I didn't actually think I would ever get any--I thought only paid account would get invite codes.

'Course, problem is, I don't actually have anyone I could really give them to, who I think would actually use them.

I'm going to see My Fair Lady (in German, which should be very, very interesting--we're still trying to figure out how they are going to translate "the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains") this evening, but first off I have a house visit. From the doctor.

To give me rabies shots.

Because apparently if you stay in more rural areas of Bhutan for more than a set number of days (I'm staying for eight) then you are at risk for RABIES.

And I'm getting a typhoid shot as well, though that isn't half as interesting as the THREE rabies shots I need to get. And then, you know what? Those three shots only last for one year. One. Year. Before it needs to be done all over again, all three. It's ridiculous. D:

wretched Saturday

2009-05-17T00:47:57Z

I.. may be totally in love with Kirk/McCoy. Which is sad, because I have this preconceived notion that I must be a Kirk/Spock shipper, or die, and also that the first time I watched Star Trek, the movie, I absolutely did not see Kirk/Bones whatsoever. Did not compute. And now that I've observed the material in a second go, I realized: Kirk and Bones were made for each other. Just like Kirk and Spock, yes, but in a much easier way.

Anyway, I'm somewhat too tired (it's three) to say anything else of value besides: if you were planning on going to see Angels and Demons, don't. I really wouldn't recommend it that highly. I won't say anything too spoilery right now, only this: they could have made something good, dammit, something which reflected positively on the Church, which, by the way, isn't *my* church, so I don't have any bias on that matter, except I don't like religion being mindlessly bashed and that's what Angels and Demons did. They could have ended on a positive, hopeful-for-the-future note that the Catholic Church had changed its ways, that there was going to be a bright future where religion and science could go hand-in-hand.... and they opted for the much more comfortable path of making the Church out to be manipulative, corrupt, self-serving, and backwards. And I. Hate. That. I may not sympathize with Christianity (owing mostly to the fact that I would be going to hell for any number of reasons), but the way they degraded everything about the Church and the people who run it was spiteful. And sickening.

That's... all. :O I should have just titled this "A lot of educated angsting" and put it under a cut, but. It's still fit for the public, I think... name no names, that's me, and hope that I haven't spoiled too much.

introspecting

2009-05-13T17:04:34Z

Sometimes, more often these days, I seriously contemplate the possibility that I may be going insane.

I don't think I'm quite compos menti.

This thought stems from the way I sometimes get hooked onto prayers or poems... and start chanting them in my head, or aloud if I can get away with it) and once I spent an entire 80-minute class period repeating the Lord's Prayer under my breath, staring at the floor and being quite disconnected.

The second instance is looking at the recent comments I've written. They are somewhat strange. :|

500 Episodes in One Year

2009-05-13T16:27:45Z

So someone got me wondering just how many episodes of TV series I've watched so far this year. Can I make it to 500? I THINK I CAN! I could never resist a good challenge, even if that challenge may permanently make me into a laze.

Right.

( I can be pretty useless sometimes... )

sheep hearts taste like chemicals!

2009-05-13T12:39:25Z

So today my friend licked a sheep's heart.

Which he had previously been dissecting. Not a cooked heart. A dead heart.

It was... a unique experience to watch, and while he claims it didn't taste like anything except chemicals, as you can imagine he was rather ill afterward. Luckily, I've got it on video so I can watch it whenever I want!

If I could only find my connector cord..... D:

fan fic question!

2009-05-12T16:55:25Z

Does it honestly bother people so much when authors make up their own nicknames for characters? I know it bothers me, but only if the nickname is bad, really bad. I got a nicely mean comment once for nicknaming Seamus Finnegan "Shay", which I can understand, because I didn't like it either. But for me, who has trouble looking at Seamus and not thinking "see-muss", having the nickname Shae (better spelling) isn't horrendous, and it's definitely understanding between good friends to shorten Seamus to Shae. But would it be better as an author just to suck it up and write "Sea", or give up the nickname idea altogether? I don't suppose I can make everyone happy.

new show

2009-05-11T19:17:08Z

It definitely took me a while to get into the whole "TV show" business, but now... I have Torchwood, Merlin, Xena, Dr Who, and Star Trek firmly under my belt and I've just started watching Firefly, which I've always heard was good, something of a cross between cowboys and astronauts--a generally adventuresome show from what I could tell from the first episode. It isn't as deliciously gritty as Battlestar Galactica (the new series) but it doesn't seem as dismally... dismal. And I do love a battered, messy, steampunk-y spaceship, even if Serenity itself is outrageously ugly (that could just be my Star Trek mind speaking up though).

Regardless, see me in the fandom! And I think that the Wild West link will be very much helpful when I try to concievably fit a horse into a fan fic. Mal/Simon sex-on-a-horse!

Star Trek

2009-05-09T19:09:51Z

Well, I went and saw the new Star Trek movie today with my sister. I think I'll write a longer review later, but I just wanted to say right now: it was brilliant. It was extremely visually stunning and quite unlike Voyager or the other series. Lots of action, lots of attractive characters (apparently that was a major source of grief for "real" Trekkies, but I think I've obsessed over Star Trek enough to call myself a real fan, and I thought this movie did the franchise justice, even if it did appeal to non-sci fi fans as well). I loved characters like Scotty and the Russian pilot (so cute!).

And... yes. That's that.

[through translation]
Waiter: What would you like to drink?
Me: I would like apple juice..... apple juice.

This was after my sister and I had a minor tiff regarding "Apfelsaft gespritzt", which is sort of like mineral water mixed with apple juice. It's vile, but she loves it, and I nearly ordered it by mistake.

Brr's Sex-on-a-Horse Saturdays!

2009-05-09T09:53:40Z

Wanted to quickly draw attention to kabeljau, my fan fiction community. It doesn't have much yet, because in truth I haven't written much yet, but I'm adding each week, and that's where I'll post my summer project.

Formally introducing Brr's Sex-on-a-Horse Saturdays!

Every Saturday in June, July, and August I will post a fic drawn from the prompt "sex on a horse". The fandoms aren't quite set in stone yet, but for sure these will be making an appearance:

Merlin
Harry Potter
Mädchen in Uniform
Xena
Star Trek (both Voyager and the 2009 movie)
Torchwood
Wuthering Heights

I myself won't actually be online this summer (I'm going to the Himalayas for a couple weeks, then for the next month I might have Internet, but it's not definite) but I'll set the fics on a self-timer. I'm excited to see where this goes!

today in the history of the world

2009-05-09T07:36:00Z

I am pleased to announce that May 9 is the day that the Vienna stock market crashed in 1874, which started the Long Depression worldwide (not to be confused with the Great Depression). Today is also the day that the Romans used to have a festival to exorcise ghosts of the dead from people's homes. According to Wikipedia, you must walk barefoot and throw black beans over your shoulder at night. Tricky business, exorcism.

There are two more performances to Die Lustige Witze--one on Tuesday and one on Sunday the 31st. I'll probably go on the 31st, because I'm seeing/hoping to see La Boheme on Monday. It's crazy: this month I'm planning on seeing eight different shows, ranging from famous operas (Lucia di Lammermoor) to Japanese puppet shows. And May is always the craziest, busiest, worst month, besides November.

what the HELL?

2009-05-08T18:06:23Z

I don't believe it!

Public transport in Vienna is, as a general rule, absolutely brilliant. Except for when it isn't.

They had construction on part of the tracks, right, but I didn't know that, so I sat at the end station (home) and waited for twenty minutes before the tram arrived. Then we stop and change drivers...... twice. Then suddenly we go onto a different route. When I finally got to the right stop, I was seven minutes late and they apologized but wouldn't let me in.

D: I am so positively morose right now, I might melt.

oh, good!

2009-05-08T14:56:02Z

He came! Early! Now I may go!

This is all very exciting, mind you, seeing as I wasn't able to go see La Traviata at the Staatsoper [the State's Opera, I suppose], which is much more sophisticated than the Volksoper [the People's Opera], where I'm going tonight. Still, I love the Volksoper, and I pass it every day on the tram, so it's much more in my heart than the Staatsoper, which is in the center of the city.

In conclusion from that tangent, I wasn't able to see La Traviata on Tuesday because I had to wait at home to open the door for the electricians! And now I was afraid it was going to happen again. I should conspire to be at home less often, because it seems my primary purpose is to open doors for people.

bugger

2009-05-08T13:44:20Z

Now I may not be able to go to see Die Lustige Witze because I will be the only one home, and someone may need to open the door for the electricians who may or may not come at some point this afternoon.

I am reading Wuthering Heights, which may become one of my favourite novels if I still like it so much when I am finished. I don't suppose I can truly have that permanent an opinion after only reading 30 pages out of 400. But I have a good feeling about it, and I love characters like Heathcliff.

After this, I need to make a list of good novels with Byronic heroes. I've already read A Hero of Our Time (Pechorin, but I thoroughly disliked him, and not only because he was a sloppy copy of Pushkin's superior Eugene Onegin) and Crime and Punishment (I would argue Raskolnikov was at least a partial Byronic hero). I suppose Snape partially fits the role, too, in his JK Rowling incarnation, and I hear Jane Eyre has a Byronic hero. Does anyone have other suggestions?

Today I discovered

2009-05-07T14:04:06Z

the pleasure of being happy. It's fun, isn't it? I had not realized how actually doing unpleasant tasks before they need to be done, rather than dragging it out for days, even weeks, could actually be such an amazing feeling. In theory, of course, I knew that I should not "put off tomorrow what I could do today", but I never actually understood the significance. Because I just learned that, I am now able to do things I want to do this weekend.

My plans:

a spot of extravagance (clothes shopping!)
"Die Lustige Witze" [The Merry Widow] on Friday
"Anatevka" [Fiddler on the Roof] on Saturday
STAR TREK MOVIE
ROLLERBLADING

Arthurian legend

2009-05-05T14:13:03Z

I'm attempting to formulate a "knowledge issue" based around Arthurian legend. Something like a question which I could pose and then examine philosophically. Unfortunately, it almost seems like it would be easier doing it on the ethics of Disney's Pocahontas.

Actually, that's not a bad idea!

Something memorable would be best. But I still need some sort of philosophical tie to Arthurian legend, or medieval literature in general. I suppose King Arthur is marginally more scholarly than Pocahontas, though I wonder, does it count as scholarly if my interest in Arthurian legend is only borne from my new-found adoration for BBC's show Merlin?

Merlin/Arthur is so canon. <3

life fulfilled and unfulfilled

2009-05-02T22:35:46Z

I die/go to sleep happily, knowing that I have written the "coolest comment ever!" on accident. I feel worthwhile. I feel awesome.

I am also going to slowly maim and hack into pieces the DW limit of 6 icons. And I thought LJ was bad in comparison to IJ. I may actually contemplate paying, which is scary enough as it is without thinking about my dedication to blogging in general and DW in particular.

But I really want more icon space. D:

dreams

2009-05-02T11:59:47Z

I had the most distressing dreams last night. It revolved around my inability to find any books in the library concerning Edna St Vincent Millay, as I need a poem of hers for an important presentation soon. Tied in with this dream was this: I could not translate "flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo" correctly. All night, I tried to translate it the "correct way", i.e., the Wikipedia version. But I couldn't find the right words.

If I cannot deflect the will of Heaven, I shall move Hell.

Good words to live by, I'd say.