raanve | Recent Entries

This sticky post is not exactly "new and improved," but it is (finally) up to date again!

..where to find me online..
- I am extremely active on twitter:

raanve
- I occasionally post to Instagram:

dryadesque
- I am on Tumblr, too:

robotroadhouse
- I just joined a Mastodon server: raanve @ federatedfandom.net
- I'm also on BlueSky: @raanve
- I am on the AO3:

raanve
- I keep bookmarks at:

raanve
- I scrobble my music listening & track concerts at:

raanve
- I catalog my personal library at: LibraryThing, & I track my reading at: The StoryGraph
- Also Ravelry, though I'm in a bit of a fiber-crafts lull:

raanve
- I am also on: Letterboxd, Spotify and Steam

..other things that I do..
- I was long a regular attendee of WisCon, though since the pandemic I haven't been in person. I did lots of panels, was on the concom, and have been attending virtually (especially the Vid Party!)
- I write and teach writing (first-year college composition) and literature at a community college.
- You can read most of my fic and all of my meta here at this journal.
- I also: read, see movies, play video games, knit, do other crafty things, and talk (a lot) about fandom stuff.

..how to reach me..
- Email is usually best. You can email me using this screenname at gmail, or via Dreamwidth.
- Twitter is probably second best - see above.

..what else?
- As noted below, I consist of approximately 68% coffee, by volume.
- What else would you like to know? Comment below!

This is an overly long post I wrote up for my British Literature I course (Brit Lit from 700 to 1800) to answer (in far more detail than students likely wanted) some questions about why Henry in Shakespeare's Henry V is so convinced that he should be King of France. I was re-reading it a few weeks ago and felt kind of proud of it, so I thought I'd share here! (By the way, if I'm mistaken about any of this do feel free to comment & let me know!) Apologies if some of the formatting is odd

Regarding Henry V's claim to France -- this is a bit more complicated! Let me see if I can trace it a little more clearly. Fair warning! We are about to get deep into the ancestry ties and hereditary questions here. I'm aware that this is probably too much information, but I think that this helps to clarify a few things, including:

Why Henry V is convinced he is the rightful King of France (legally & otherwise)
How tenuous the stability of government was during these times, under absolute monarchy. Disputes of this kind are behind the majority (I would say) of wars during this period, most notably civil wars in England and of course the war in this play. Consider how the head of government is decided -- people (not even Lords) do not vote for a leader. The head of government is determined entirely by a list, essentially, of specific people born into specific families. This, of course, is a very unstable situation; when order of succession is disputed, people take up arms to fight for their chosen side.

And so. Here's some genealogy:

Shared ancestry*:

French King Phillip III is the shared ancestor of both Henry V and Charles VI [our two kings in this play].
- His son King Philip IV became King of France after him. Philip IV's daughter Isabella would become Queen of England upon her marriage to King Edward II of England.
- His younger son, Charles the Count of Valois, would not hold the French throne. Charles, Count of Valois, founded the House of Valois (a sub-branch of the primary royal dynasty/family).
  - Incidentally, this is why Henry's future bride is called Catherine of (the House of) Valois.
  - King Charles VI is descended from this younger brother, and is thus a member of the House of Valois.

On his death the French crown passed from King Philip IV to his oldest son, Louis X. Louis X died young (around age 26) -- and with only one living child, a daughter. Louis X's widow, however, was pregnant - so everyone waited to see if this child would be a son. John I was born about 5 months after Louis X's death, and since he was a boy he was therefore, automatically, King of France. Unfortunately, King John I of France lived only 5 days. And so Louis X's brother became King. Over the next 10 years (roughly) both of Louis X's younger brothers would take the throne; both died without a male heir to pass the crown to.

Enter: England. When Louis X's youngest brother died, his younger Isabella -- the last surviving child of King Philip the IV, and the current Queen of England -- laid claim to the French throne on her son's behalf. (This son would become King Edward III of England. See below.) If Isabella had been a son, instead of a daughter, she would have inherited the throne, and then her son after her. Since, as a daughter, she could not be the monarch under French law, she made the claim that her young son was the rightful King of France.

At that time English law, like French law, did not allow for a daughter to inherit the crown. However, it did allow the line of inheritance to be passed from mother to son; the French "Salic law" forbade this, and so under the Salic law, none of Isabella's children had a legal claim to the throne.
The House of Valois disagreed. This comes down to a disagreement as to which law applies. This gets complicated -- if Isabella's son is King of England, and then becomes King of France, then he can apply English law to France as well. But if he is not the King of France, it doesn't matter what English law says. You can see how this gets twisted up into a kind of logic puzzle. French magnates (legal courts, in essence) determined that French law applied and declared Philip of Valois to be King.

Charles VI, King of France:

Charles VI, our French king, is the great-grandson of Philip VI [aka, Philip of Valois].
- As a descendent directly through the male line, Charles is made king when his father (also called Charles) dies. There is no question about Charles VI's claim, because it was passed from male king to male king, until it got to him.

Now, to Henry V:

Henry's grandfather is Edward III of England. Edward III had a recognized claim to the French throne through his mother, Isabella.
- However, under the Salic law, Isabella cannot inherit the throne or pass claims to the throne to her descendants. This is the logic that the King of France is using to deny Henry's claim.
- England's interpretation of the Salic law in question was that it applied only to certain specific areas, and/or only applies to German-speaking Frankish holdings at the time the law was established. The legal argument we see in the play is this one. Therefore Henry V, as a direct descendent of Isabella and Philip IV, would rightfully inherit the crown.

Henry V and Charles VI are fourth cousins. You can see how complex matters of royal succession can be -- and why this led to so many succession wars. We are about to begin studying the Restoration period, which comes about as a result of massive governmental changes that begin decades after Elizabeth I's death. The Restoration established England as a constitutional monarchy, in which the monarch (King or Queen) holds little power in the day-to-day, legislative, and "real" governance. France, of course, went through several very bloody revolutions before being established as a democratic republic, eventually with a system of government much like our own, and no monarch at all.

So that's it! This was a pretty deep rabbit hole, but it is entertaining to think about, and it does help illustrate how unstable medieval life, even of ordinary people, could be.

Since we went this far down the rabbit hole, I'll throw in one other little piece of genealogic trivia:

While Elizabeth I is not a descendent of Henry V, who died without children, she is descended from a character in this play: Chaterine of Valois. (Yes, the Catherine who is learning English in order to be wooed by Henry.) After Henry V's death, Catherine of Valois (secretly) married a Welshman named Owen Tudor. Catherine and Owen would become the great-grandparents of King Henry VIII. (Henry's father established his hold on the throne by winning the "War of the Roses.")

* That Henry and Charles both would call themselves descended from Charlemagne is true. Philip III is their most "recent" shared ancestor -- most (if not all) royal dynasties in Europe at this time [and perhaps still today] are "directly" descended from Charlemagne. Given that Charlemagne died in the year 814, there is around 572 years between his death and Henry V's birth. So! It's mostly a "technically that's true for bragging rights, but doesn't really matter much" kind of thing.

Current Mood: nerdy

So! July is now behind us, and here's an update on how my plan for being productive worked out.

- Journaling: Well, um. Obviously that didn't happen much.
- Fiction writing: That, too, was a bust.

However, I'm still thinking on things and working out how I can help get a good schedule and boundaries going for when the term starts up again. (Just 2 weeks!) Since we now know that we're going to be fully online - at least in my discipline, and most, our school's only exception are courses with labs or certification/contact hours types of requirements - I know that I will have to get some sort of structure into my day AND make sure I carve out time for relaxing & for creative pursuits. While I will have access to my office, it's pretty unlikely that I'll be on campus very much at all, since we are also being told to conduct meetings virtually, as well as almost everything else.

This is good, and I am grateful for the sensible and caring way that our college/administration has been planning and handling things during the pandemic. I keep seeing horror stories of expectations for faculty and staff at other institutions and I feel super lucky to be where I am. But at the same time, it presents a challenge. Overtime, long days, and continuing to work after one gets home from campus are all part of the deal (sometimes, not always of course, but regularly) in my job. I need to make sure I am keeping good boundaries around work stuff so that I don't go back to feeling "on" or like I should be doing work AT ALL TIMES.

Anyhow - journaling has been happening in my paper planner, and I hope to do more of that here as I start feeling more & more like writing things that are longer than 3 tweets. :P The fiction? I don't fully know. I may attempt a NaNoWriMo sort of thing to give myself both structure & low expectations. We'll see.

- Videos: I have redone my Library Activity videos and they are much better than the ones that have been in the English II course (which I made.. 2 years ago, maybe?). I am now planning some intro and lecture videos & will probably be working on those next week.

- Garden: The garden hasn't required quite as much upkeep as in other years, mainly because I now have most of the heinous weed problem actually under control! I do need to get out there and pick beans, tho. I've already harvested more than a dozen cucumbers & have made something like 6 batches of refrigerator pickles, so that's pretty awesome. Tomatoes have not yet started to ripen and I am getting impatient -- but they did go in later than usual, and it was chilly this spring for later than usual, so that's probably to be expected.

- Crafting: The baby blanket got completed & sent off to our friend. She & the baby LOVED it. You can see finished pictures and some other details here on Ravelry. Once that was finished, I started cross-stitching and am nearly done with the first big cross-stitch project that I've started since... middle school, maybe? That's been really fun & mostly I listen to audiobooks or podcasts while working.

Which brings us to the next & last two bits. One thing that wasn't explicitly in my list in the last post that has been going REALLY well is reading for pleasure. I've been reading lots of audiobooks, as well as print/ebooks. I've gotten more reading done this summer than I have since, probably, before I went back to school. So -- more than a decade?! It's really good and feels so nice.

Moreover! N had a really excellent idea for my birthday gift & asked me about it, with the mention that he wanted to get it for me early so that I'd have time to enjoy it while it was still summer & I was still on break. And that idea was: A HAMMOCK. I have wanted a hammock really badly for a while -- it is so relaxing, and my only chances have been at retreats with gaming pals -- but our yard really has no good space for a traditional one. We found this one instead, and it is PERFECT. It's on the deck, the mosquito net works amazingly, I did a little "decorating" with a shower curtain to improve the shade [our yard/deck gets zero shade]. I've been spending hours at a time out there reading, and it's SO GOOD. Here, have a selection of photos.

Anyway - that's where we are today! I have some musing about the dogs that I'd like to write but I think now I need more coffee & possibly to go outside. It's nice out & perhaps more hammocking is to be done.

Whoa, look who's back! A journal resurrected!

( ..big long ramble under the cut.. )

So now that I'm starting to feel like I want to do a few things, here are some things that I plan to do during July:

journal more (hello!)

do some fiction writing - either start something new, or take a look at giving one of my older NaNo novels a second pass

make some additional videos for courses, including lecture videos [yes, this is work - but I'm learning new skills and I felt I super did not have the time/energy to do this during the spring term. While we're supposed to have some face-to-face courses in the fall, I'm not counting on that. Sprucing up the online stuff now might make life easier in the long run]

continue with the garden & also do some crafty type things (garden is going extremely well so far, and I finished a large blanket for a friend's baby AND am doing some cross stitch!)

I know I have this tendency to sort of ~secretly~ make this kind of plan, and then let my various brain weasels slink off & do their own thing. I also know that sometimes I deliberately don't say anything about possible projects so that I can avoid accountability. ;P So here I am - attempting to resurrect the DW, and hoping that if you're here you'll wave or chat or something, and that that might keep me accountable to myself. We'll see how it goes.

Sooooooo. I figured I should make a post just so folks know -- I won't be at WisCon this year. Nothing bad is going on here (quite the opposite); the real reason is that I need a year off, I think.

I have attended every WisCon since 29 -- that's 14 years ago! That's a lot of WisCons. I love WisCon and usually find it to be one of the most important parts of my year. I get to see people I love, I get to have fun and cool conversations -- I usually come back feeling energized and excited about things. I have no doubt that if I were attending this year, I'd experience the same thing I have at all the previous 14 WisCons. That feeling of closeness and excitement and sharing geeky fannish stuff.

The thing is, really, that in nearly all areas of my life I have been going non-stop for the last 6 or 7 years. I think it caught up with me this year. I had several instances of travel for work this spring, and more job responsibilities, and I was pretty wiped out by the time April came around. And every time I thought about attending WisCon, or making arrangements to attend, I just felt... dread of some kind. Stressed out instead of excited.

I want WisCon to be wonderful, and I don't want to feel conflicted or annoyed or stressed out at the prospect of attending. I want only joyfulness! So I think this year is the year to take a break. I'll definitely be at future WisCons, likely even next year, so don't fret. <3

As I was heading to a doctor's appointment today, around 3pm, I got a text from my school's emergency alert saying that all campuses are closed tomorrow. (While our main campus and secondary don't close terribly often, we do have a couple "snow days" a year, because we are so rural and so many students who live in the city take the bus.) Usually, my phone would go off at 6am with an alert text - it's so nice that they made the decision early because now I feel free to enjoy my evening and tomorrow.

The closures are due to predicted extreme cold -- like a lot of the rest of the midwest, we are about to experience very low (though not record low, I don't think) temperatures. The wind chill advisory warns that at times wind chills could be as low as -40°F. I do not recall ever seeing a wind chill projection quite that low -- I suppose there must have been some very low temps when we were in New England, but certainly nothing like that here.

AND SO - I have the evening off, and no school tomorrow. (Though I will still work. It's nice not to have to get up early, though.)

I have a lot of other things I want to post about -- I've even made a list! -- but for now I'll leave things here.

* MEME TIME: I'm willing to do a variation of the Icon Meme! No passing things along, but ask me about any of my icons (or a couple), and I'll fulfill the meme: Tell me about them: where they came from, what they mean to you, and/or when you deploy them.

So, uh, I guess it makes sense (given the recent Tumblr-related influx/revival) to at least make a BRIEF post here to say that, yes! I am active on DW! I am here and am definitely here for the DW renaissance and all of your posts & fandom in general.

Of course, it doesn't look like I'm here because somehow, even in the midst of my second year as full-time faculty, my job has eaten, if not my life, at least my brain most of the time. But we're on the verge of winter break and I've had a plan for a while to post more regularly, and this is a good motivator SO.

Hello, there, friends! Let's have some good times, shall we?

SO. On Saturday we got a new dog! I'm sure most of you folks saw on Twitter, and have also seen various photos, but just in case you haven't, let's lead with a picture and then the quick version:
A dog, relaxing on the couch - he is a tricolor husky/cattle dog mix with a freckled noes and lopsided ears.

A dog, relaxing on the couch - he is a tricolor husky/cattle dog mix with a freckled noes and lopsided ears.

The quick version is this: he is a little over 1 year old, the shelter said the folks who surrendered him just didn't want a dog anymore; also that they told the shelter his mom was an Australian Blue Heeler/Husky mix. I think they are likely right about the breed mix -- that's what he looks like, and that's the kind of energy he has once he gets going. (My guess is that someone in the neighborhood/family had puppies, and then once they were no longer puppies they were no longer wanted.) He is extremely sweet. We're calling him Clint, after Clint "Hawkeye" Barton.

Here's the slightly longer version: ( ..lots of babble about adoption & another pic under the cut.. )

So that's the beginning! If you want to read EVEN MORE detail... ( you can click here.. )

And lastly -- the vet's office on Monday, in which he lives up to the epithet "dumpsterfire". ( Oh, yes. It's a lot. Don't click if you don't want the bodily-function details & vet specifics! )

( Day 4 and the last few amusing things... )

That is the EXHAUSTIVE entry I have meant to write for days! It's a lot, but it's mainly for me -- one good piece of advice about bringing home a shelter rescue that I saw was to keep notes so that you can actually see your dog's progress. I also didn't want to forget any of this stuff! Definitely more updates as we go.

(And I have updates about me and my job and other things, too! But clearly Dog is what is motivating me to type words. ;) )

Sooooo WisCon is this week! I'm scrambling to get everything done & in order & my deepest wish is to have lots of fun while simultaneously being quite busy at-con.

If you're attending, this post is to provide you with useful information about Jess At WisCon. If you're not, I suppose you could read it anyway. I mean. It's really up to you. (Many -- most? -- of you know me pretty well already, and indeed have spent time with me at WisCons prior. If that's the case, the info here is useful to you if you want to meet up at some point during the con.)

This is a revised edition previous years' posts, since this is my... omg twelfth WisCon?! If there is something you are wondering about or would like to ask me that I don't cover here, please ask in comments and I'll do my best to answer.

This is long let's have some cut tags.

( ..about me.. )

( ..seeing or hanging out with me at WisCon.. )

Are you attending WisCon? Will I see you there? Is this not the best con? COMMENT BELOW! \o/

* I pretty much stole my title from this Mr. Show sketch: "The Return of the Curse of the Creature's Ghost". This is actually a really good example of the kind of stuff I carry around in my brain all the time and occasionally reference without cause -- comedy sketches from a decade ago (or more - heck, the Associative Brain Quote & Reference File goes all the way back to SNL of the 70s). Fair warning. And yeah this is only a slight modification of last year's post title - I'm not clever enough today, and it remains illustrative. ;P

Current Mood: busy

Well, here we are - the last day of the heinousness that has been 2016.

I am not feeling terribly well today -- migraine yesterday & it's lingering today, plus my stomach is all stressed out & I can't tell if it's related to migraine or actual stress. BUT. In a little while we'll be heading down to Cincinnati to spend NYE with our college circle, as is the tradition, and I'm determined to have fun and be happy & give 2016 the boot it has so rightfully deserved for lo these many months.

I have lots of thoughts & feelings, and some goals, and huge changes starting pretty much right away in 2017. I'm going to spend part of tomorrow and all of the next week getting my head around all of that and diving in. I'm excited and nervous (and, yes, stressed), but I'm also more optimistic than I thought I would be.

So - tonight I will raise a glass (or several) to all of you, and to all we lost, and to forging ahead with as much righteous fury as can be mustered, even though at this point of 2016, I am exhausted. I am glad to have you all, though, and glad we have each other. And that's not nothing. <3

SO! As you (probably) know, Jim, today is the 50th Anniversary of the debut of Star Trek. There has been a good deal of fun and hilarity and general Trekkish nerdery on Twitter today, which has been highly enjoyable. But possibly the most enjoyable for me was

NicasioSilang's question of who was "your first Trek crush"?

There were many extremely excellent answers to this question. Mine, personally, is Pavel Chekov, followed by Wesley Crusher. I feel like Crusher is a reasonably standard answer for folks my age (I was about 10 when Next Generation premiered, but had been watching TOS all my life). Chekov -- I honestly don't know. It just was.

Of course, in talking about all of this, I remembered some of my most embarrassing (by non-fannish standards) Trek-nerd memories. I realized that there were three -- and that they were all pretty closely related to one another in that they probably all happened in the same year of middle school. I mentioned this to

wrdnrd and they got all curious. AND SO: I present to you my three most embarrassing Trekkie memories.

( ...nerdery ahoy! )

AND SO. These are mostly not as mortifying as they sometimes seem to me -- in fact, they sort of simultaneously delight and embarrass me. But even with the embarrassment, I would not be who I am today -- with the friends I have, and the amazing things I get to do -- without Star Trek. I'm grateful to my Dad for being my first model of fandom, and for geekily and excitedly sharing with me all of the things he thought were cool. Trek has given me so much over the years, all of it good (even the embarrassment, which was always -outside- of my Trek experiences, anyway), and I'm grateful.

So! Relevant to somethings that are happening this weekend, I have a question that I'd like you all to weigh in on:

When you think of "standard" fanfic AUs - the kind that show up in multiple (or every?) fandom - what comes to mind?

Leave your ideas in the comments! This is the "informal poll" style of thing, so no insight is necessary, but if you also want to chat about things or why you are a fan (or not), feel free to do so!

Sooooo WisCon is this week! I've been dealing with this impending reality by simultaneously doing concom-related stuff and being in total denial that WisCon is happening this week. BUT ALSO - I am pretty excited for WisCon!

If you're attending, this post is to provide you with useful information about Jess At WisCon. If you're not, I suppose you could read it anyway. I mean. It's really up to you. (Many -- most? -- of you know me pretty well already, and indeed have spent time with me at WisCons prior. If that's the case, the info here is useful to you if you want to meet up at some point during the con.)

This is a revised edition of last year's post, and several years' past posts, back into ~~time immemorial~~ whenever I started doing this. ;) If there is something you are wondering about or would like to ask me that I don't cover here, please ask in comments and I'll do my best to answer.

This got long so I tried to organize it using cut tags.

( ..about me.. )

( ..seeing or hanging out with me at WisCon.. )

Are you attending WisCon? Will I see you there? Is this not the best con? COMMENT BELOW! \o/

* I pretty much stole my title from this Mr. Show sketch: "The Return of the Curse of the Creature's Ghost". This is actually a really good example of the kind of stuff I carry around in my brain all the time and occasionally reference without cause -- comedy sketches from a decade ago (or more - heck, the Associative Brain Quote & Reference File goes all the way back to SNL of the 70s). Fair warning.

Current Mood: excited

WisCon is fast approaching -- something I am simultaneously stoked about and trying not to think about -- and this year I'm doing something NEW and AWESOME.

For years (decades?) WisCon has run Writers Workshops on Friday morning (just before the "official" start of the convention); traditionally those workshops have been run by pro writers, and often aimed at aspiring pros or those who would eventually seek a market for their work. This year,

TheRotund is running the Writers Workshops, and had the brilliant idea to expand the types of workshops offered. So! This year, there are going to be several special sessions, including sections for fanfic writers! (Some others, too! Go look!)

I'm running one of these sections, and I'm pretty excited about it! I was really flattered to be asked, and I am in extremely good company when it comes to other folks running workshop sessions. My session will focus on using tropes and AUs in fanfiction as ways to explore, unearth, and illuminate character and character dynamics. And while tropes and alternate universe are not totally interchangeable terms, in my view most of the "standard" AUs we see commonly across fandoms are really about imposing tropes or trope-ified (is that a term? Tropified?) patterns on characters. I think that my friend

jinjurly said it slightly better when they said that an AU is "like a pret a porter trope set."

So when we write a Coffee Shop AU, or a Pacific Rim AU [side note: Drift compatibility is one of my absolute favorite relationship models], what are we trying to figure out about characters and who they are, or who they are in relation to one another? I'm really looking forward to exploring this with workshop participants through discussion & writing exercises -- and hopefully, if I've done my job right, we'll all come away with a little something we can post or share (or, maybe, with the start of a bigger WIP!).

You can find more info at the WisCon website -- details for signing up for any Workshop section are found here. Some sections require submitting a manuscript in advance (or bringing one with you), but my section does not!

Spots are limited and the deadline for workshop sign-ups is Monday, April 25. If you've got questions (or comments), let me know!

Current Mood: excited

In my Comp I classes this term, I'm trying something new -- I've started the term off with a few weeks of writing practice & discussions about reading & writing, critical reading skills, writing myths, how all of this ties to the rest of their academic career, etc. They are working on their first essay, which is really kind of a training-wheels essay, a statement of goals for the term. These goals can be related specifically to Comp class or to another class, they just have to be related somehow to school/academic success. For the essay, they're setting 2 specific goals, discussing how they will measure their success, and also discussing what challenges they might face & how to deal with them.

This has been an interesting process, for both me & them -- they've been doing a lot of writing this week & I've been giving feedback as I go, suggesting tools or strategies where I can, etc. Most of them are responding really well to this assignment, which is exciting! But setting specific goals and planning how to tackle them is a pretty challenging task, and I started to realize as I was plotting out the assignment that it was only fair that I do it, too. So I've set some goals and yesterday I sat down and plotted out a plan for attempting to accomplish these in February. I'm posting here so that I can try to hold myself accountable for doing all of this! (I'm going to tell students about these goals, too - they will likely be more than happy to hold me accountable for whether or not I do this.)

My goals mainly revolve around getting back to more writing, and especially more writing related to teaching. I have really slacked on this, mainly because working full time & teaching on top of that leaves me little energy/spoons/time to tackle academic research or writing, but I also know that slacking on it isn't doing me any favors. So i'm going to try to ease back into that with some writing that's focused on teaching, and some academic-lite writing that's focused on my interests. Here are the goals:

Write up three exercises/activities to submit to my colleague for our department-wide teaching guide (I have to have these done & sent by the beginning of February)
Update my "professional" website, since it's out there but boy is it languishing. So: freshen up the CV, create a section for posting exercises/assignments, and start working on blog posts
Write one blog post on pedagogy - have this edited & posted by Feb 29
Actually start my Morte D'Arthur project: have one section read & one blog post on that posted by Feb 29

Since I'm asking students to confront & plan for potential challenges, I also set two goals that should help me overcome my own challenges (mainly not writing at all & quietly pretending that these goals never existed). So:

Get my 750 words streak going again
Spend at least two hours each Friday afternoon reading/writing/working on these specific projects.

I can entice myself to do the latter by promising that I can spend those hours at the coffee shop or beer lounge, if that's what it takes to get me to get up and doing it.

So, friends, I'm putting it out there & you can cheer me on, keep me accountable, ping me on Feb 29 or March 1 and see if I actually did these things I've said I would do. I'm going to encourage my students to ask as well. I'm feeling pretty optimistic about this so I hope I don't crash and burn! (But, in honesty, often when I make these plans I don't also include specific details on how to accomplish them - so that's a step in the right direction already!)

I saw The Force Awakens just before Christmas -- so, not opening week but about as long a delay as I could stand -- and I still haven't written anything about it. (Okay, I haven't written anything but a BUNCH of tweets about it.) But after a brief twitter exchange with

pennyplainknits this afternoon, I kept having a bunch of THOUGHTS and so I figured I might as well toss them into a post here so we could talk about them at more length than Twitter really allows.

These are some extremely spoilery thoughts, by the way. If you still haven't seen it & don't want to know anything, don't expand the cut text!

( ..Spoilers go here! )

I've got lots of other thoughts, but these were today's big ones! Feel free to discuss in comments -- also feel free to tell me I'm wrong and/or misremembering something! (So, other folks, watch out for spoilers in the comments.) There's a whole bunch of other stuff we could discuss, but I think this entry is long enough. ;)

Tomorrow is going to be a bit of a rough day. I have a medical thing, nothing serious - I am well - but it's going to be all day & unpleasant. This, of course, overlaps with some other really stressful stuff happening tomorrow, and so I am here to make a request! It's going to be one of those days when having good stuff waiting for me here (& in my email) will really, really help me out.

So! I'm here to request nice things be left in the comments. Nice things may include (but are not limited to):

Cute pics, adorable videos, awesome gifs
Pics of pretty people, links to photosets of awesomeness
Fic recs! Most of you probably have a decent idea of what I like/what my fandoms are - I'm also willing to hear about whatever fic you love the most right now
ficlets, stories about good things happening in your life, other nice things

Thanks in advance. <3 I have the best friends. And who knows, maybe a blanketfort party here in my comments will be good for other people, too. :)

I was reading Tumblr the other day and saw this post on

kellysue's Tumblr and -- being the person I am -- I saw someone's well-organized journal and mention of tutorials and the name of a journaling method I'd never heard of before and I was like hmmmmmmmmmm.

It turns out, there are lots of sites and tutorials about the Bullet Journal method. Admittedly, looking at the 'official' site directions isn't all that inspiring, though the basics are there. I was most charmed by posts and tutorials like those by

staticsandstationery -- her bullet journal tag contains some good links to other posts where people have posted their own.

staticsandstationery's Bullet Journal Walkthrough video was also pretty good. (I also like the tutorial video which was linked in the first Tumblr post I saw.)

Now, admittedly, a lot of this is me and my aspirational productivity. Looking at these posts where people are so organized and have such beautiful handwriting and productivity tips and pretty washi tape is the sort of thing that makes me feel like if I just set this system up tonight, then my whole life will be changed! It's the same Liz Lemon productivity-pr0n trap I fall into all the time, in some ways. It's also that thing where you see something that someone's made, and there are tutorials, and you get all excited even though you know you're not the lifestyle-blogger/Martha Stewart type who can do things that include beautiful handwritten 'typefaces' and so on. Like... my attempt would not look anything like these! But then again -- look at this one with it's pretty organization & collages & stuff! Or this one!

ANYWAY, I did go buy some Staedtler Triplus Fineliners, and I did pull out some journals I had on standby. I'm going to give this a shot. I think I will start small with a very focused journal -- I keep a teaching journal that used to include detailed lesson plans for each date and then notes on how each class went. I still carry one, but over time it's degraded a bit to a catch-all for notes & reminders & a place to keep sticky notes. I'd like to try the Bullet Journal method out with my teaching stuff, organizing things by each month (rather than keeping separate digital calendars as well as an awkward little google calendar print-out with sketches for each week of class). Calendar planning, recurring teaching tasks, and the usual reminders that come up (or ideas for modifications/next term) would, I think, be really well suited to this method.

I can see uses for my personal stuff as well -- writing goals and well-being goals and the kind of regular documentation that actually seems to help my brain/mental health. But I'd like to start with the more focused teaching journal first and see how it goes. I'll keep you updated! For tonight, I think I'll start with prepping my next teaching journal (I'm about due for a new one, anyway, and it's about to be October).

I got my first tattoo waaaay back in 2006, and since then I've thought about getting a second. But it's taken me a long time to come to a decision -- it took me a long time to settle on the first one, to be honest. In fact, Nick & I were going to get second tattoos together, but I took so long to make up my mind that he went to get his second without me a few years ago, which, fair enough.

When I turned 37 last year I thought that might be the year to finally take the plunge. I had a couple of ideas & mulled it over for a while, though with one thing and another it kept getting put off. So! Shortly before my birthday last week I thought, well... if I'm going to have this done while I'm 37 (which is my favorite number), I'd better get on it. And I started coming to a final decision, choosing an artist, and so on.

To make a long story short (too late!), I got a tattoo last night! Technically, it was my birthday present from Nick. I got it done at Cloak & Dagger Tattoo, which is in our neighborhood. When I was looking around, the portfolio of their artist Jess Oram caught my eye and I felt like she would be a good fit - so we went to see her for a consultation last week and now, here we are:

( ..tattoo image here! )

It's a shield with a cricket. The cricket comes from something that started way back when I was about 8 -- I don't know why, but I wanted that to be my name or my nickname, though I didn't really tell anybody about this. Later, after Nick & I had been together for a while, I mentioned it to him, and he's used it as an occasional nickname ever since. You may also recall that it was my character name on Glitch, actually for this same reason. Crickets also have a number of positive symbolic associations, and they make nice sounds, and also they're pretty cute, considering that they're insects.

I'd considered the cricket for a tattoo for a while, but in trying to figure out how to "dress it up" a bit I was stumped for a while. Then it occurred to me that here I could subtly (or not-so-subtly) pull in my love for Arthuriana, and create my own device. And so, I did some digging and research -- including some reading in Arthur Charles Fox-Davies' 1909 text A Complete Guide to Heraldry (link goes to the full text on Project Gutenberg). I also looked at some color meaning cheat-sheets, so to speak, like this one. Luckily, my two favorite colors have 'meanings' which suit me. So then I made up a little sketch and the artist did the rest (including suggesting the border). In a poor attempt to get the heraldic language right, I think you could describe it as: Parted per bend sinister vert and azure, bordure or, cricket statant toward sinister.

I'm really happy with it -- the artist did a great job and improved on my ideas in all the right ways. I have to admit I'm a smidge nervous about having it in such a visible place -- my left forearm, just above my wrist -- but I think that'll fade as I get used to seeing it there. It's just nerdy enough, I think, to suit me. (Also, I'd forgotten what tattooing felt like, and it didn't hurt anywhere near what I was anticipating, which made me feel like a badass.) So there you go!

I was on vacation all week last week! I didn't go anyplace, but I did get lots and lots of downtime, and even got some real stuff done, and also

caoraesque came to visit. And basically it was great.

My vacation started out a little early, in fact, because we had our annual picnic last Thursday and after that, new!Boss let us all go early! Which was awesome. I had nine glorious days in a row free (well, mostly free) of office or school. It had been a while since I had a vacation where I didn't have a class to teach or something to grade -- even so, on this vacation I did have some grading that happened and I also did course prep for fall term, which starts today. A lot of it was sleeping in and doing just only what I wanted, but I also did things like clean the whole house and get some stuff organized, and basically just spent some time getting my head on straight. I had been starting to feel burnt out and empty-headed, so I'm really glad I had the paid time off and the ability to take the whole week. (I was, at first, just going to be out while

caoraesque was visiting, but then decided I might as well take the other two week days off.)

So, not much to report for the first half of vacation, because the highlight was truly

caoraesque's visit -- she got in on Wednesday night and was here until Sunday morning. We had so much fun. On Wednesday we mostly sat around & watched stuff (she got in around 9:30, so), and on Thursday we went out to Cox Arboretum and walked around, looking at flowers & trees & the butterfly house. The weather was really just astonishingly pretty, and it was such a nice afternoon. That evening I think we watched Fun in Balloonland via RiffTrax, and there was much weeping laughter.

On Friday, we went down to the Cincinnati Zoo and spent all afternoon there. We saw literally every animal exhibit available to us, and did lots of walking and lots of talking and it was super fun. We got to see a chimpanzee freak out a kid who was inappropriately close to the glass, which made me laugh really hard. (The chimp came up and BANGED on the glass and the kid, like, levitated rapidly away and within a split second was 5 feet from where he'd started. I probably shouldn't have laughed so hard, but it was truly hilarious.)

caoraesque taught me about parthenogenic lizards and also she fed a giraffe. It was PRETTY GREAT. On the way home there was lots of traffic, but that just gave us more time to have a long conversation about Arthurians & space!Arthurians & interior character stuff in our RP game, and it was basically perfect. That evening, at home with N, we watched more RiffTrax (Santa & the Ice Cream Bunny and Night of the Lepus, which features DeForest Kelley, but not nearly enough DeForest Kelley).

Saturday we went to see Age of Ultron (which I think I liked better the second time around, but which still has massive problems, mainly of the Joss-Whedon-Why-Are-You variety) and then Saturday night was Iron Man 3, and now I think

caoraesque is basically caught up with the MCU. And then, sadly, Sunday I had to take her to the airport & now I miss her.

Last night we went over to my sister-in-law's to hang out with them, and there was pizza and cuddling with/reading books to my niece, and talking, and also I got a back-to-school haircut. Tomorrow is N's birthday, so there was also ice cream cake!

Today is the first day of the term, but my classes are on Tu/Th, so that's kind of nice, in a way. Today I was at the office all day, and tomorrow at 8a I'll be doing first day of school stuff. And I feel actually rested & ready to get back in the swing.

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raanve

July 2023

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Page Summary

Here are things you might want to know about me!
Henry V - family relations & Salic law
Summer continues (for now...)
Let's see about making July productive...
WisCon 43: The One that I'm Not At
Very Very Cold & Also Meme Time
Yes - I am here!
Big News: We got a dog!
Pre-WisCon 41 Info Post: Return of the Curse of the Epic About-Me Post's Ghost*
I'd say "farewell, 2016" - but that implies good and fellow feeling toward this past 12-month span
Star Trek 50th Anniversary CELEBRATION
QUESTION: Fanfic AUs
Pre-WisCon40 Info Post: The Return of the Curse of the Epic "About Me" Post*
WisCon Writer's Workshops: Hey, do you like to write fanfic?
Goals for February!
Some pretty specific & definitely spoilery thoughts about The Force Awakens!
Hey - got anything nice to share?
Bullet Journals!
I got a new tattoo!
So I had a vacation!

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Recent Entries

Sticky: Here are things you might want to know about me!

Henry V - family relations & Salic law

Summer continues (for now...)

Let's see about making July productive...

WisCon 43: The One that I'm Not At

Very Very Cold & Also Meme Time

Yes - I am here!

Big News: We got a dog!

Pre-WisCon 41 Info Post: Return of the Curse of the Epic About-Me Post's Ghost*

I'd say "farewell, 2016" - but that implies good and fellow feeling toward this past 12-month span

Star Trek 50th Anniversary CELEBRATION

QUESTION: Fanfic AUs

Pre-WisCon40 Info Post: The Return of the Curse of the Epic "About Me" Post*

WisCon Writer's Workshops: Hey, do you like to write fanfic?

Goals for February!

Some pretty specific & definitely spoilery thoughts about The Force Awakens!

Hey - got anything nice to share?

Bullet Journals!

I got a new tattoo!

So I had a vacation!