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1. Screw you, Hamilton. Screw you. Just. Why.

I descended to the level yesterday of re-reading Astolat's Hamilton/Washington accidental soulbond fic and I was like 'but. why is there not more of this. especially the way she hints at the way the two different types of magic interact. I want more of this.'

And then I remembered I had the library copy of Uprooted sitting right there. Oh me.

2. Accomplishments of the day: I finally finished Alaric Hall's mp3 Icelandic course! Ég tala islensku nú! (Ég tala ekki islensku.) Now I have to decide whether to take that out of my dailies on habitica, or to keep trying to practice somehow every day.

Also I made a bingo down the middle of my feedback bingo card! \o/ I've actually left a feedback comment every day since I added that to my dailies, which is pretty impressive, given it's me, even if a lot of them were pretty sad feedback comments.

3. This is your reminder that if you want to vote in the OTW elections you have to join the OTW by tomorrow.

4. Oh, also, I am going to Capclave - the DC area SF books convention - this weekend. I've only been thinking about going since 2001, so this seemed like a good year. I've never been to a book-focused SF convention before and I don't know anybody - I offered to volunteer but they got back to me saying they'd get back to me and then didn't. They do have a first-timers' mixer Saturday morning, though, it looks like. Anybody got any advice?

5. This week's dvd-and-crafting, I randomly drew the drawer of documentaries! \o/ There's probably something wrong with me that that felt like a week off. I pick James Cameron's .

I have a kind of thing for the deep sea. Actually my first tv-related memory is begging to be allowed to stay up until nine to watch a PBS special about marine invertebrates. So yes. That's why this one was on the list.

And actually tbh as a film it... wasn't that great? IDK, I watched the extended cut, so maybe the theatrical cut worked better. I loved that the voiceovers were member of the actual crew instead of a narrator, though. And you know. Tube worms, robots, and plate tectonics: you can't go *totally* wrong when that's what you have to work with.

And the outer space stuff was fun; I've always had a thing for hypothetical tentacled Europans; although tbh I think I'd rather have had more about the tube worms.

(Also it bolstered my favorite theory for the solution of Fermi's paradox: if, as Cameron suggested - and current evidence also does - the majority of planets with the chemical prerequisites of life are dark liquid water sealed under a solid crust, then there's no particular reason they'd be obsessed with the electromagnetic spectrum like we are. In particular, an ecosystem on a Titan-like planet would be fundamentally powered by gravity (and to a lesser extent cosmic rays) rather than sunlight (and to a lesser extent nuclear radiation) like Earth's is. So while we were tracking the stars to count down the seasons and years, they'd've been tracking minor tidal effects. While we were learning about optics and eventually radio, and deducing the exists of other stars and planets from their light, they would be learning about gravity, and deducing the existence of the rest of the galaxy from its gravitic effects on their planet. (And maybe they would develop electromagnetic radiation detectors eventually, but their gravity-based tech would be way more advanced by then.)

And I don't know what that science would be like except that it would be based on stuff that Earth physics understands very, very poorly right now. So who knows how what may be the majority of creatures in the universe would be trying to communicate.)

Also I altered the silk skirt printed with fantasy maps that has been in my mending basket that I wanted to wear to the con this weekend, yay.

6. Happy birthday, sister, if you are reading this! I hope you got my excellent present in the mail.

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Hamilton/Washington accidental soulbond fic? *is off like a shot*

I assume you have found it by now because it's not like there are hundreds of stories on AO3 for that pairing (yet), but just in case: Force Majeure. (I didn't link it in the main post because it's kind of a life-ruiner of a fic really.)

yeah I've been and found it - thaaaaank yooooou that was amazing.

Accomplishments of the day: I finally finished Alaric Hall's mp3 Icelandic course! Ég tala islensku nú!

Wow, congratulations! I keep meaning to go back to Alaric Hall, since I've only done the earlier short course. I think it would help a lot with my speaking (which needs a lot of help).

If you want tips on what to do next, let me know.

Thanks for the rec, I enjoyed it a lot!

Congrats on the Icelandic!

Your thoughts on gravity-based tech are very interesting.

"So who knows how what may be the majority of creatures in the universe would be trying to communicate."

Right? This has always bugged me in both science & sci fi.

I did! I texted you pictures! :D

And they are cute yet hate-filled!

Yeah, just, the obvious answer to why we aren't detecting other civilizations on radio is that there are more ways of communicating than dreamed of in our philosophy. And most of them are probably better for interstellar communication than photon beams.

And even, like, SETI mostly searches very specific wavelengths, and I used to think there were sound scientific reasons for those wavelengths, but last year a read a thing on history of SETI, and no, they're just wavelengths that some white dude in the 1960s thought were obvious.

Someday we will actually figure out gravity, and that will be a great day.

I just did the early short course, too. I may go back and try the new one eventually if I stick with it, but. I think maybe my next listening practice should be with someone who does not have that very specific British accent. :P

I do think it was a great idea to start with audio-only, but that means I have basically no spelling ability (beyond what I picked up from signage in Iceland) so I think I'm going to do some text-only learning next instead. I started messing with Memrise today, but I guess that really depends on which course you pick, and it's hard to tell.

If "life-ruining" counts as a rec, uh, sure. Glad you liked it!

I'd been considering going to Capclave, but decided against it because I don't feel like shlepping all the way down there. Have fun! Stalk Benjamin Rosenbaum for me!

Yes, his accent is fairly clearly not native - even to a beginner!

After Alaric, I went to the Icelandic Online course, which is free and does a good job of introducing native texts early. Also a good mix of text and audio - though I will say it has its infurating features.

If you want a book, Colloquial Icelandic is my favourite.

It isn't even so much the non-native accent in general, but I cannot hear the difference between his (and boy-student's) Fs and þs. Not to mention how hard it is to figure out how Icelandic Rs work when your teacher can't handle English Rs. :P

I'm going to stick to non-audio (or at least 'audio fully optional') if I do a computer course because I can't do audio during free times at work. (That should at least straighten me out on my fs and þs)

Yeah, I'm going to that one because it's my more-or-less local one so it's minimum commitment. Will try!

I just finished Uprooted--such an excellent novel!

I've been to Capclave a couple of times. They are trying to reach out more and be more friendly to newcomers--I went about 8 years ago and got frozen out of a conversation I tried to join. Some of the old-timers are very hard-SF-white-male-writer oriented, so keep your eyes open for people who aren't! No one really wears costumes, unless things have changed in the last few years. I look forward to reading your report!

It really was! It took me a little while to warm up to it because "I live in an isolated village with my best friend Cassie. I'm not like other girls, because I'm clumsy and a tomboy and I make messes. Cassie's the pretty and talented one. Everyone knew that when the festival came, he would choose Cassie" is the beginning of, like, dozens of mediocre YA novels. (Epecially the part where the pretty friend is called Cassie. Is there some rule you have to use that name?) But then around the time the prince showed up, Agneiska suddenly realized she was in an epic fantasy rather than a YA love triangle, and it got really good. ^_^

And I definitely got the idea that Capclave was a SRS LITERARY CON FOR SRS SF LIT, so that was kinda what I was expecting, but oh well! I like me some hard SF sometimes, and a lot of the workshops/panels sounded interesting, so we shall see (At the very least I bet I can get a copy of Ancillary Mercy in the dealer's room, at which point nothing else will matter anyway.)