September 2012
47 posts
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August 2012
45 posts
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Listening to The Dictator soundtrack a friend sent me, and reading Sufi poetry.
It’s all Arabic swag in here today.
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keepcalmandwearafez replied to your post: keepcalmandwearafez replied to your post: I have…
yay . i am supper excited for you k. do you know what time your classes will be. would be cool if we ended up on the same bus either going in or coming home :)
I’ll be in school from 12-3 (at the least) from Monday to Thursday. :)
Our mutual friend A is upgrading with me, so I’ll be...
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keepcalmandwearafez replied to your post: I have some awesome news that I’m far too tired to…
CLIFF-HANGER. why k? i will be excited for you..but i am not amused with the suspense lol :P
I was actually feeling blue today and was going to delete that post without updating, but then I saw this. I can’t leave my Fez in suspense!
So the big news is… *drumroll*
I’m going...
I have some awesome news that I’m far too tired to type up tonight. Mostly because I’ve been home for about an hour over the last three days.
Needless to say, it’s awesome, and also awesome, and you should be excited if you know me.
Have horse-stuff to talk about as well, but none of this is particularly exciting since today was my first ride in two weeks.
Hope all my...
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It’s a really nice feeling to get all of your administrative calls out of the way before 9:30.
*wiggle-dance*
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Memento Mori
So I was on the bus today when an older Native man came aboard.
He was a little overweight, with a moustache that made him look like Ghengis Khan, and long clean black hair, through which I could see a seriously wicked scar on the back of his scalp. The kind of thing you’re lucky to live through. He was clearly intoxicated, and over the course of the ride he fell asleep several times, and...
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I can now - with only minimal lightheadedness - actually sing* The Rocky Road to Dublin.
I’m on my way to being able to play it on mandolin as well.
Mildly astonished at myself.
*This is not to say I can sing it well, because I am tone deaf, but I CAN sing it.
Not Dead Yet
Sorry about the radio silence lately, my darlings.
Between my grandfather’s sudden decline, helping a friend pack up all of her dad’s belongings, and trying to figure out school plans, it’s been crazy and a half in Casa Del Alamaris.
I hope to have some content up next week at the latest — thank you all for your patience, and thank you for reading!
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I have learned the secret to singing The Rocky Road to Dublin.
Don’t breathe.
*gasps, on the floor, like a fish*
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Let it be known that I, for one, have been... →
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Literature Meme!
1. Favourite childhood book?
I didn’t read all that many quote-unquote kid’s books as a child — and now that I’m an adult, I read a lot of youth books. Funny how that works. Among the books I would recommend for every child are Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, The Last Unicorn, the Orphan’s Tales duology, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own...
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keepcalmandwearafez replied to your post: Okay, I respect idiosyncrasies of translation,…
Speaking of translating. any luck with that french nun book i got you from Paris?
Unfortunately not — translating even a little book like that is a big job, and I didn’t foresee myself having the time for a while. So I loaned it to my grandfather, who goes through books like candy, and...
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Okay, I respect idiosyncrasies of translation, because languages not only change over time but also include non-transmutable terms. Translators are saints and paradigms of virtue, even when they suck, and some of the best translations maintain the spirit of the original text instead of the literal diction.
But I really, really want to know what Farsi word got translated as...
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Today was utterly exhausting mostly by merit of my grandfather being rushed to the hospital, not breathing.
To make an exceedingly long story short, he’s home and he’s fine, if somewhat understandably wan.
A very happy Eid-ul-Fitr to my Muslim friends — Eid Mubarak! — and a gentle reminder to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you.
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Belated Summary
Having read all four of Sarah Caudwell’s breath-takingly perfect Hilary Tamar mysteries over the last week, I am somewhat at a loss for what to read next.
*casts around, as if lost*
Liber Claro has, to my astonishment, cracked 9000 words as of yesterday evening. The project is essentially a patchwork quilt of id-wankery, something between Lord King Badfic and Jung’s Red Book, minus...
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I had a haircut today! Finally got the shaggy mop-dog on top of my head shaved back into submission.
Let me tell you, after successfully wearing headscarves on record-breakingly hot August days, voluntarily leaving the house without one on a relatively cool morning felt very, very strange.
The rest of today mostly involves menial chores that can be done in the proximity of fans. Which, given...
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*checks temperature report for the rest of the week*
*gives up on work*
*makes elaborate cooling contraption from two fans and a hanging ice pack*
*constructs couch fort under standing desk, with help of cat*
*hides*
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A Rose By Any Other Name
Youtube just tried to pressure me into changing my username into my real name.
I, of course, declined. And was somewhat amused that upon declining, Youtube asked me for my reasons, and gave me six options to choose from — six excellent reasons which implied that asking to change my username in the first place was a rather stupid concept.
Which, okay, I use my real name on Etsy, and anyone...
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Every prospective author, especially those who've... →
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Five Things, Idly
1. The absolute, most spectacularly refreshing method for showering I’ve ever devised is mildly masochistic. Now, my family (and some worried friends) know that I take cold showers, and have for years, leading many to believe that they’re the secret behind my unflappable asexuality. This may have some merit, but I’m more inclined to believe that the asexuality started before...
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Scratch that last entry.
4000 words on Liber Claro, 2000 words on a silly romantic drabble (space opera project, if you’re wondering) and one drawing of the garage door done in a fit of boredom.
It would be nice if both projects would solidify their settings a little more clearly so that I might play more widely with the subject matter, but that’s a problem to be posed after...
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2000 words so far today on Liber Claro, because I apparently can’t focus on only one project at a time.
Mostly just keeping the writing muscles exercised at this point. It’s good to be back.
One day I might have actual content on this blog.
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4000 words on the Ridiculous Space Opera yesterday.
What the hell am I doing?
Whatever it is, it’s fun, so I’m gonna keep on keeping on.
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1000 unexpected words on the space opera project I have, for lack of a better title, been calling the Militant Book Conservationists In Space novel.
It’s nice to write something fluffy and easy, rather than my usual attempts to warp genre convention and narrative form.
I mean, it’s a science fiction novel about a Muslim version of Iron Man and a bunch of space librarians about to...
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keepcalmandwearafez replied to your photoset: Working with all the undignified bachelor powers…
very neat idea. what do you do when you want to sit down though..do you have a hight chair?
I’m going to find a cheap stool in case I want to sit at the desk, but otherwise, I’ve got three chairs and a laptop out here. I can sit down to work away from the desk if I really need to. ...
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keepcalmandwearafez replied to your post: Searching for “nuns” on Tumblr was a bad idea. …
kind of like me searching for a decent pagan blog on tumblr was not the best idea. lots of goth kids
*rainbow hands*
Welcome to the internet!
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Searching for “nuns” on Tumblr was a bad idea.
*scrubs eyes*
*closes Firefox*
keepcalmandwearafez asked: hey can you post a link to some of the websites that you buy tarot decks off of?
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Óttarsdottir Returns
After almost a year of absence, I tried playing my mandolin last night. And by “tried” I mean I practiced my old favorites for an hour.
My fingers, they hurt.
A drunk friend started a Skype call and caught me in the middle of “Low Bridge, Everybody Down” and taught me about sustains, which I’ve always been too impatient and tone-deaf to understand. (Still...
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Today’s showhand lesson: horses are not quiet animals.
I mean, I already knew that, intellectually and experientially. They’re herd animals and they have very large lungs and they can make very loud noises. I get it.
BUT OH MY GOD.
*clutches ears*
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*gets home*
*collapses*
*surfaces*
*sets alarm to 5am*
*falls over again*
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