Coming out of a discussion with friends :

[Poll #233]

I vote for Dr. House here, because (like the US vs. the Roman Empire) despite the fact that Dr. Cox is better in every way, there are still some things which he will not stoop to do.

On the other hand, Dr. Cox would have allies - Sacred Heart, despite its problems, is all-for-one against the world (and some of them *are* lacking scruples and/or a sense of proportion) whereas Dr. House has chased off pretty much all of his potential allies. Hmm. It would be close. Discussion or evidence (aka fic recs) welcomed.

[Poll #234]

[Poll #902312]

*Yes, yes, I know, the locusts were probably actually the fruits of the carob tree, not the swarmy crawly things with eyes. But the honey was probably actually honeydew, which is even closer to being bug pee than *normal* honey, so it evens out.

**I have been giving the people in my Sunday School coloring pictures brown skin for a long time now.***** One of the kids called me on it today for the first time, and said Jesus and Mary were white, and when I asked him why, he said, well, for one thing, they always are in every picture he'd ever seen of them. I hope I managed to both teach him a little about the limits of race and teach him to think twice about things that are just "always" without, you know, confusing him even further. (At least he wasn't bored!)
Besides, we don't have any peach markers left.

***Actually, hasn't he been on the Report yet? Stephen should totally invite him if he hasn't.

****Well, it's a better explanation than the one in Matthew, anyway! And I've read some interesting Biblical analyses which point out that Christ, and the early Church, and probably John too, were bankrolled largely by wealthy widows.

*****I also colored my Temple all bright and stripy today. I'm on a one-woman mission to remind people that all those old ruins used to be painted! Pretty colors! Because they were. And then maybe it'll catch on and when I do my house all frescoes and murals the neighbors won't complain.

It's a week and a day until NaNo, so it's high time I made my annual NaNo header post.

For anyone (is there anyone?) who doesn't know what NaNo is, National Novel Writing Month is a huge yearly challenge, the terms of which are to write 50,000 words of story in exactly thirty days, in the month of November. This will be my fifth year so far. (My NaNo registration number only has four digits. I feel *old*.) So far I've yet to break 10,000 words, but I'm doing it a bit differently, so I have 'opes. Feel free to nag me when I start to slack off.

Anyway, this year I will be posting my nano work locked, tagged, filtered, and hopefully daily, on this lj. If you want to read, nag, beta, mock, heckle, kibitz, or just watch, this post is your one-month chance. Speak up and I'll add you to the filter, even if you aren't already on my flist. (Some of you will be added even if you don't speak up, particularly if you're doing NaNo, or you've already expressed interest. But don't count on it, 'cause my brain can be like a sieve. And this is also your place to speak up if you *don't* want on, no hard feelings.)

...oh, you want to know what I'm going to be writing about? Well, in short, it's hard-SF origfic. With psychic powers. ( Fic headers yay! )

(::poll)[Poll #851804]

So I spent the weekend with my sister and her cat (Again.)

( Here is a picture of me with my sister's cat. )

[Poll #845897]

...no, probably not.
[Poll #842766][Poll #842767]
Notes: Only the first three story options would actually qualify under NaNoWriMo rules. Also, I make no promises as to what I actually end up writing. :P

[Poll #837290]

Three additional notes: Said neighbor does not speak English too well, has already had to put up with your mother telling him how to plant corn, and has had bad luck with much of the rest of his garden.

Oh, and you (unintentionally! Honest!) planted your own tomatoes on your side of that fence, right where they'd get full benefit of his watering.

If there's any better place to have been reading that than out in hurricane weather, it was sitting in a tiny tea-shop in the pouring rain while eating a scone so hot that it nearly scorched my fingers.

Reading these old YA novels only on my commute seems to be just the thing. I think I shall continue. I'm checking out The Eagle of the Ninth today to tide me over. Now it's time to see if I can find a library that will loan me Swallowdale- neither the school library nor the local one has it. Meanwhile, my flist needs to help me out!

[Poll #814413]

(I'm nearly always Titty, but sometimes John and sometimes Peggy, and when I'm feeling particularly Nativish, sometimes Susan or Roger. But I'm nearly never Nancy, for I'm sadly quite ruthful usually. My sister's maybe John but sometimes Nancy and sometimes Peggy or Titty - but you ought to make her read them and ask her. Actually, frey_at_last, I *really* think that you four and us two need to rent two sailboats on a lake and go play Swallows and Amazons some summer.)

Half my friendslist is showering me with pirates stuff! Thanks, as if I needed the encouragement, what wiht having already spent all weekend reading books about pirates. (And yes, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" counts.)

It's come to my attention that DMC seems to have ended on something of a cliffhanger - in more ways than one - and that people are getting *really* different versions of the movie depending on how they see it coming out. (Interesting that the cliffhanger at the end of HBP made me lose all interest in playing in that fandom until after it's resolved, but the PotC one has just spurred me on. Possibly it has to do with trust, again.) Anyway, rather than trying to do actual in-depth analysis of my feelings on the matter, I give you a pirate poll! (What does this make, three since the first time I saw the movie?) I will look back at the answers in a year and people who guess right win swashbuckling pirate prizes!

( Not All Treasure's Silver and Gold, Mate )

(Also, the more I read about *real* pirates of the Caribbean, the more *inescapable* is the conclusion that Jack Sparrow has got to be the *worst* pirate captain I've ever heard tell of. I love him, but honestly, I'd far rather serve under Barbossa.)

ETA: Why does this website have the Calvert Arms mixed in with all the pirate flags? No, for serious. They don't seem to know either, and they don't have any of the other colonies up there? I would love to know if there's an actual reason, as I'm writing a paper on Maryland pirates as we speak. (No, really.)

Dear SGA fandom: Sometimes a lemon is just a lemon. And sometimes it's a codeword for copious amounts of sex. Either way, freaking calm down already. You lot look insane. And not in the fun way.

In other news, I am at my sister's apartment. Have been since Wednesday. Mostly, it's been pirates.
[Poll #781727]
Right, break over. Back to homework.

[Poll #725137]

Yes, yes, i'm supposed to be doing that books-I'm-reading meme that my sister tagged me with. Only, well, I'm basically in the oppsite spot that terredancer is. It's *books*! Asking me to talk about the books I'm currently reading is essentially the same thing as asking me to explain every single thought that's gone through my brain in that time, and how they've changed the way I think, and how it connects back to other books I've read and ... and .... BOOKS!

Also, I got distracted by that fanfic that none of you flist people cared about. q-:

Anyway, these are the five books I'm currently reading, sans 50k of rambling commentary: The Lore of the Unicorn, Encyclopedia of Birth Control, Flesh of the Gods, Shards of Honor, and The Price of Blood and Honor. If you want to know more about any of them, ask in a comment, and I probably won't be able to shut up.

Also, today in stat discussion I sketched a first draft of a Sarracenia fairy, next in the series that started with the Dionaea fairy that ya'll mocked (to your peril) in the icon discussion. So perhaps I will get back to drawing a bit - at the church meeting on Sunday I also drew a sketch of Barbara Gordon with Methos at swordspoint, which is the first time I've ever drawn a) a wheelchair or b) a swordfight that didn't look horrid and static. Of course, if I try to draw it over on non-lined paper it'll *still* look horrid and static, but them's the way it goes.

RANDOM POLL TIME: I was listening to the radio on the way home and Story of a Girl was playing, and of course I was trying to vid/songfic it in my head (totally Wilson/Cameron, by the way) and suddenly a name flew up into my mind out of nowhere. And I want to see if anybody else remembers who she is.
[Poll #704403] Looking at the answers or using a search engine is totally cheating. Using paper books or Project Gutenberg is fine, though. Hint: she was one of the first (and finest) examples of the modern Goth Chick archetype in Western literature.

In memory of Erwin Schrödinger & for the unofficial last day of Agnostica, My Cat Hates You.

Yeah, I'm back around. Still haven't caught up from LJ for the week that I was in the wilds of Ohio, though. Particurly, I haven't narcissistically read every single yuletide recs post in hopes that somebody mentioned my story. (Which, by the way, was Earthsea fandom: Calving, and wasn't nearly as good as the story that was written for me, which was Riddle of Stars fic: Unanswered Riddles, by Rhiannon Shaw. Usually when people say "I am not worthy" it's meant as humorous exaggeration, but it this case it was literally true.) And then there's a whole bunch more fic to read and maybe even review. And *then* I might have time to do a proper New Year's update.

Or then, not. I'm taking a winter term class, 4 hours a day, on GIS. Plus substitute teaching still. Of course, after two days of class we still haven't done any actual GIS work, because the lab's software liscense expired on Jan 1st and they haven't figured out how to reinstall it yet. Yay! Ooh, and I actually used YSI for a legitimate purpose today. Okay, no, it was to share illegal copies of protected intellectual property, but it was real class readings and not fannish silliness, so it counts.

And speaking of that, I have another public-transit related ethical dilemma to throw to your collective wisdom:
[Poll #645707]
There ought to be a community just for ethics polls. I would use it all the time. After all, who better to trust your integrity to than a bunch of random semi-strangers on the internet?

I am eating a leftover cheese ball for dinner & then I need to get a job for tomorrow and do homework. When there are two boxes of new (okay, fourth-hand hand-me-down) sci-fi novels sitting *right in front of me.* ETA: If you're interested, here's the contents of the two boxes. Yes, I cataloged instead of doing my reading. Bad me.