The Seventh Garden

Singing Superheroes

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:14:48 GMT

Just watched the first part of Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog by Joss Whedon.

Man, that was good. :)

http://drhorrible.com

You know, they had to move that thing to another server because so many people were watching it. ^_^

++ annyihra

Personal update

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:24:51 GMT

Recent Activity

So, yesterday I went to a used book store in DC for a cookbook, as I didn't want to pay a large amount of money for a new one, and it's not like 21st-century cooking is radically different from mid-'90s cooking. I found one of Rachel Ray's books and decided to get it. For, even though she has a very raspy voice that sometimes annoys me when I watch her cooking show, some of the stuff she makes is interesting (and that book contained a recipe for spaghetti with mussels . . . yum . . .). Passing by the classics section, I got sucked into a debate of whether I really needed to get the Satyricon and a copy of Homer's Iliad, neither of which I have read. (I know. I'm a terrible Hellenic Polytheist, almost as bad as those Christians who have never actually read their Bible.) The part of me that didn't really want to drag a huge pile of books around lost the game, and I'm incredibly lucky that I got out of that place before I found fifteen million other cool books.

Yesterday, I also saw Wall-E. That movie was fantastic, and you should totally see it. While they did make a few scientific mistakes, they were relatively minor compared to, say, Titan AE. Also, smoothies and sushi were had. It was a good day.

Except for the bus being an hour late, which meant I did the Kyklos Apollon ritual one hour and ten minutes later than I should have. Oh, well. I'm sure Apollon understands?

Personal Stuff

While at the bus stop this morning (open-air market in Takoma Park), I called my mom. My younger sister Chelsey is being brutal to her and asking when she can go home to my dad, just utterly refusing to get involved at all. My dad apparently sees this as a victory because one of his daughters recognizes my mom's innate, unchangeable wickedness, and that the circumstances leading up to my parents' divorce were totally her fault. (Note: that was sarcasm. Just as it takes two to tango, it takes at least two people to ruin a marriage.) But I really wish my sister were less abusive towards my mom. Mom has been completely rejected by her, and I don't know if they will ever see each other again if Chelsey gets her way.

This past August, Chelsey and Mom were getting along just fine, and the divorce was already under way at that point (but not finalized). I am going to blame the behavior on Chelsey's controlling, antisocial boyfriend who critically failed to impress me the one time I met him, and who I consider a terrible influence on her. Friction between Mom and Chelsey over that relationship and associated issues --- like, Chelsey requiring that my mom drop everything she needs to do just to drive Chelsey to her boyfriend's house --- have probably ruined their relationship just as much as the divorce. Mom says that Chelsey called her a whore. My dad is also playing the field, so if she criticizes my mom, she can't exactly avoid holding my dad accountable for moving on --- which she doesn't seem to recognize. She must also fail to recognize that my dad does have psychological issues --- what kind of sane person would barge into the house in a hysterical crying fit at eight in the morning, screaming that he will get a court order to have Mom and all of the kids (who are present and all below the age of thirteen) thrown out of the house with nowhere to live, at that very second? --- and doesn't have very good money-managing skills.

I think one of the most shocking moments of my adult life came when my mom revealed that the time she had to go to the hospital in the early morning to get stitches, my dad had accidentally pushed her into the glass coffee table while they were arguing. Back when I was a kid and that happened, I had refused to go down and see her lying in bed for about an hour or so because I didn't want to believe that she had been injured.

Granted, I do have some problems with my mom as well. She can be overbearing, and she has a Type A personality. I sometimes avoid calling her unless I have something to say about a recent accomplishment because she will pressure me about getting my act together, and she will tell me that I am in danger of becoming a failure to motivate me to do things. She used to tell me that if I didn't get things done, I would end up working a minimum-wage job at a gas station and live in a trailer because no one else would hire me. Now that I have a fairly good internship in DC that I had to buy a suit for, she's getting on my case about these things less, and I call her once every few days.

I would call my dad, but he has this habit of never answering his phone. Chelsey also seems to not answer her phone. I don't have Lindsay's phone number. Right now, my dad is seeing a woman named Karen who has a son about my age who is gay and has spent some time in China. My mom hasn't really settled with anyone yet (I mean, geez, it's less than a year after the divorce), but she's been hanging out with a Canadian, a Buddhist, and a microbiologist respectively; she hasn't decided to date any of them yet. I'm more okay with that than Chelsey is, because it reminds me of late ninteenth-century courtship as outlined in Dracula, which was common to the period. Chelsey apparently missed that memo.

I am happy to see both of my parents move on, though, and I don't hate either of them for their respective personal flaws. They didn't really work well together as a couple, anyway.

Current Operating Status

Currently, I am not dating anyone, nor am I really involved with other people socially. Most of my friends are either spread across the country from graduating or being on summer leave, but some of them are all up at Smith having a good time with Smith internships and jobs. The other intern, Laura (pronounced "Lauwra," with the "auw" having the same vowel sound as "bough"), and I have hung out a bit, and I'm thinking of looking up the handful of people I know from the area. On the Internet, I am lightly involved in several lists and a forum about Hellenic Polytheistic Reconstructionism and variants. My real-world religious practice is getting easier now that I'm living somewhere that doesn't have a prohibition against candles and incense. I may see the play Man of La Mancha this coming Friday and have coffee with someone on Saturday. Were I in DC longer, I would probably take a martial arts class and seriously consider joining Hellenion (that whole college student thing about not living at your permanent address most of the year is the one reason why I haven't joined yet; I may do so this fall when I'm at Smith, as I will be there for roughly nine months).

Tomorrow evening is the beginning of Kronia, according to the pen markings on my calendar transferred from HMEPA. I am going to light incense and say a few hymns to Kronos, and then Tuesday after coming home from work I will make something and do a slightly more formal thing. Tomorrow is also the food-buying day of the week.

Today, I made an offering of incense to Rhea, the Mother of the Gods, reading the Orphic hymn to her. Once I do more research on her, I may feel up to writing hymns of my own that will more accurately represent how I feel about her, and be slightly less misogynistic than the non-Taylor translation I found on the Internet.

++ annyihra

Um, what? O_O

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:02:36 GMT

nengrelim just linked me to the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyheJ480LYA

I am disturbed and appalled by the imagery in this thing, and I don't understand how people can give it such glowing reviews when it seems to come from the depths of mental mind-fucking. I know that some of my friends are Christian, but I have this sincere hope that they also find something slightly wrong with something so . . . sick.

I think it's called Lifehouse's Everything Skit.

++ annyihra

I have an American accent.

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:53:43 GMT

After work, I went to the supermarket and to a wine/beer store (because the supermarket apparently didn't have a wine section) to get stuff for Anadikia, the Hellenic New Year. This is the first time I have tried to buy wine in the United States since turning twenty-one. I found an interesting-looking recipe for a sort of blueberry smoothie that calls for wine (it needs to be boiled on the stove for about two minutes).

The man who helped me find a "light red wine" (which the recipe called for) had a generic Asian accent, which is admittedly a bit difficult for me to understand, and always has been.

So, as I presented my ID at the register to the kid working there, he asked whether I was British or American.

Now, I have a very strong American accent. I wonder what could have made him think otherwise? So I said, "Um, I'm from America, but I've been in the UK . . ."

He seemed satisfied with that. And so I bemusedly left the store and walked to the metro station to get my train to Takoma.

++ annyihra

Wait . . . Kayleigh has another blog?

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:40:06 GMT

Hello, posting links to stuff I've done on KALLISTI this past month. As you can see from the dates I posted these things, I have a very sporadic schedule that works out to a bit over one post per week, depending on how much time I have to devote to postings.

If it's the kind of stuff you like to read, enjoy! If not . . . well, at least I didn't post these things here and clog up your LJ! You get brownie points if you can tell which one of these entries' titles is a tribute to Dead Poets Society.

Here's everything from June:

On Zeus (2 June)
Musings about the place of Zeus in my practice.

“O Gods, My Gods!”: The Twelve in My Practice (3 June)
A defense of the way I honor the Hellenic pantheon, and an assertion that while I do pay special attention to minor deities in my personal practice, it doesn't make me any less of a Hellenic Polytheist.

Comic Relief (10 June)
Yes, this is a bit of a cross-post, with a different caption. I will talk more about what I'm working on technique-wise later.

Comments On Speaking of Faith's "Sustaining Language, Sustaining Meaning" (22 June)
My response to a National Public Radio broadcast.

Gods Behind Glass (28 June)
What I think about when I see my Gods in a museum.

Shoyeido Incense (29 June)
A review of an incense brand that I have just discovered, but that other people likely already know about.

++ annyihra

Writing

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:23:01 GMT

Spent time editing my novel today, after the decision earlier this week that I will spend at least a portion of every Sunday devoted to my creative writing (as last week was rather hectic, and Sundays allow me Saturdays to recuperate from any hectic stuff that happens in my internship). I have now edited it through Chapter Seven, and am in the middle of one of the first few Chapter Eight scenes.

My attention span is still a bit bad after this past week's crammed work schedule, and I found myself wishing that the chapters were a bit smaller simply because, unlike any potential reader who could just stop at the sub-chapter breaks, I decided to edit chapters all in one go, and these things are long. When I say long, I mean fourteen pages, size eleven Linux-version-of-Times-New-Roman font. I could edit sub-chapter by sub-chapter, but the chapters jump back and forth in time and I really want to make sure I know where I am so I can catch any inconsistencies.

So . . . that's where I am right now. I'm sorry that I haven't offered up anything interesting of late, and am sure that my life may sound incredibly boring. It's not, really. ^_^

++ annyihra

Looking back at the week

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:01:43 GMT

There is something fantastic about walking somewhere and seeing a restaurant called BIG BAD WOLF. Seriously fantastic as in, double-take fantastic.

So, this past week of work was very busy, and I enjoyed it. I worked 46.5 hours (that's 9 hours of overtime), and got to talk to a lot of really interesting people and start a really interesting project of which I'm not mentioning the specifics, other than that it has to do with astronomy. I found out that I can get to the grocery store one stop up the metro quite easily, as in it's right behind the metro station and in a good neighborhood, so I did some grocery shopping yesterday and forgot to buy laundry detergent so I can have clean clothes tomorrow.

And now I'm going to watch the latest Doctor Who episode, which I have heard has made many people go O_O over the past few days. Lovely Internet connection I have here. ^_^

++ annyihra

Soooo tired.

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:10:30 GMT

First, work. Let's hear about it. I worked 7.5 hours (normal work day) on Monday, 6.75 hours on Tuesday, and 12 hours today. Tomorrow, I have to leave at 6:20 AM because I need to be at the main building at 7:30 (and I work not at the main building usually, but at the building that's a thirty-minute commute). I will probably clock overtime, which I actually get, I think. Here's hoping I wake up all right at 5:30 AM.

Yesterday evening, I went to Union Station because I needed a suit for today (and will probably need one at least a few other times this summer) due to the board meeting that I attended all day. It's pinstripe, which is squee! worthy. I also have shoes. Union Station's a pretty fascinating place, and it's just a metro stop away from my workplace. I spent some time on the phone with my mom asking for advice and help, because I had no idea what non-business casual clothing really was even though people had been telling me since high school. So I went to Express, and the woman there assisted me quite well in finding what I needed. Thank the Gods that there was a sale going on all over Union Station. Seriously! I also found a ten-cent coin on the ground, which I will attribute to Hermes because I decided to wear my computer chip pendant yesterday, and I wrote "Hermes" in Greek letters with black sharpie on it, and in my mind that means that he was totally helping me out, like, hardcore yesterday.

This weekend I think I'm going to the Native American museum, and as per my mom's suggestion I'll go to the restaurant there because they apparently have some really interesting food. I also need to do more grocery shopping, but I can do that at the metro stop above me because there are supermarkets in walking distance of the metro.

My dad totally didn't believe me when I said that my workplace used a business dress code, by the way. Now I have a pinstripe suit of pinstripe-y awesomeness, and I looked scarily professional when I saw myself in the mirror today.

I get to sleep in until 6:30 AM on Friday!

++ annyihra

First day of my internship . . .

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:23:05 GMT

First day of my internship today. Was very, very hectic. I am very, very tired. (I can has sleeps nows?) However, I think that I will like it, even though it's currently going at a speed-of-light pace due to a very important event on Thursday. I spent several hours today making gift bags.

DC is a really interesting city. Must investigate when I have more time. Right now, I don't have time, and I don't have tons of money until I get paid, for two reasons: one, I've been studying abroad and have used a lot of it; two, I've been studying abroad and most of the cash in my wallet is still in GBP, and that's no good for doing things like putting money on my DC version of the oyster card (that goes by a much less creative name*), nor is it good for getting things in the cafeteria. In fact, it's only good if I want to go overseas for any reason.

Oh look. Rain. Proper, American rain. It's rain . . . IN AMERICA.

So, I suppose, if you're in DC between now and August 29th (because I fly out on the 30th), and you would like to hang out, please say so. Not that anyone's actually reading this, of course . . . .

Tired. Good night. ^_^

++ annyihra

*I'm just going to call it an oyster card and watch people stare confusedly at me.

Travel!!!!! ^_^

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 15:27:10 GMT

Okay. I'm adding Philadelphia to my list of airports of super-special-awesomeness. Atlanta, Saint Louis, and Pittsburgh are on my bad list. And how am I testing this? Phillie lets me on wireless for free, so I can check my mail and other things. They've partnered with AT&T to make it free. Now that's what I call super-special-awesome.

My cold is getting better now. Surprisingly, the Cold-Eeze seems to help more than taking the children's ibuprofen (yes, I took the adult dosage of a children's liquid medication). And I'm feeling fairly good for four hours of sleep plus half an hour on the plane.

Oh, and by the way, that flight was terrible. There was something wrong with the air pressure, and the pressure difference made a splitting pain go down the sides of my neck from my ears, and up into my forehead. I felt like a zombie was eating my brains with salt and pepper. And lemon. From the looks on others' faces, I don't think they were doing much better. But hopefully this coming US Air fight will be a bit better.

Speaking of which, boarding supposedly starts in four minutes. I should shut my computer down.

++ annyihra

Parking Garage Fun

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:16:45 GMT

Last night when my dad picked us up, we couldn't find our way out of the parking garage because their exit signs are rather obscured, so we decided to follow another one of the cars out. She apparently had no idea where she was going, either, but she stopped suddenly and started backing up. We were already stopped behind her, and she clearly couldn't see us, so my dad beeped his horn. She didn't heed the warning, and so we had to back up, but there was a problem because when we did . . . there was a vehicle behind us, which was also beeping its horn, that we didn't see because we were trying to figure out what the hell the woman in the giant SUV was doing. She didn't see us, and she says that she didn't hear the horn when she talked to the officer.

And then she said this to the officer: "Well, I didn't see him, so I don't know how fast he was going . . ."

We couldn't find our way out of the parking garage. I think that this means we were going relatively slowly because we were searching for signs. Thank you, whoever you are, for rationalizing your incompetent driving and need of a hearing aid. (By the way, she also didn't notice that there had been a minor accident until she had finished the driving maneuver she had wanted to accomplish.) I can understand if she was spaced out of exhaustion --- flights can do that to you --- but no one should drive when exhausted.

The dent in the back of my dad's car isn't that bad, but it's noticeable. It's what happens when a small car backs into someone in either an SUV or a pickup truck, which has substantially more mass. I feel kind of bad because, insurance-wise, it's our fault, but we backed into the guy trying to avoid getting hit by someone else (the woman who doesn't know how to drive and should really not have a giant SUV because she could seriously hurt someone in that thing).

Of course, I was sort of dozing off in the car through most of the police report thing because I'd had an eight-and-a-half hour flight from London to Atlanta, and a two-hour flight from Atlanta to Saint Louis, and my immune system decided to let something get past it, and it sort of caught up with me during my first flight. I'm sure that the pressure changes didn't help, either. (Maybe my subconscious wanted to find an excuse for me to stay in the UK or something? As if that would work . . . .) If that accident hadn't happened, we would have gotten home before 1 AM.

I think I'm going to pack some boxes now, and then eat lunch.

++ annyihra

Yesterday = Travel

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:03:50 GMT

7:30 PM 18 June 2008

Sitting in Atlanta’s airport with my computer. Not connected to the Internet because of the error I get with wireless (hope I can fix that soon . . .), and also because the airport here uses proprietary wireless because it doesn’t want to provide it. I feel so exhausted, mostly because I have been awake since the equivalent of 1:30 AM EST (12:30 AM CST), and I had to deal with a lot of . . . crap . . . at this airport.

Let me explain. I had to switch airlines. Atlanta has a really idiotic setup for customs in which you have to get your baggage off of one of the concourses, go through customs, put your baggage in a place to go back to the conveyor belt, go through airport security (because the aliens could have beamed a knife into my carry-on while flying across the Atlantic), take the train from E terminal to Baggage Claim and Check-In, wait about half an hour for my bags to show up at the concourse, and check back in with American Airlines. Now, I didn’t just have to check in with AA. Interestingly enough, I was booked to go to two different locations simultaneously: Philadelphia and Saint Louis (the latter of which will take me back to my dad’s house, where people have been sandbagging for the past week to keep the town from going underwater). After checking with my mom, I found out that I’m actually supposed to go to Saint Louis.

This makes me feel a bit weird, because while on the flight back home I remembered a dream I had a few years ago in which I died in a flood and floated around as a ghost. Please, please, please let the sandbags hold!

But yes, we’re seriously at orange threat level?

I miss the UK a lot, and I’ve only been out of the country for a few hours. Everyone here seems so paranoid and stressed out (yeah, I had to go through two different security checkpoints . . . and one immediately after customs—it’s almost as if the USA thinks that the folks over at Gatwick are incompetent), and I sort of feel like I’ve left a free country for some sort of police state.

And you can totally tell that British Air is British. Compare something along the lines of “Mind your bags when you check the overhead compartment, because they could fall out and injure someone.” to “Please watch the overhead compartments, as bags may have moved during transit.” The first one is very British. The second . . . yeah, no mention of a bag falling out to flatten a small child or anything. ^_^ Which is definitely a good thing!

Iz to be wanting UK nows.

On the plus side, I get to see my kitty soon!

Now (morning of the 19th)

Good news: the levy hasn't broken yet! Bad news: I sort of became ill while traveling. It's some weird sinus/sore throat thing that makes me feel like I can't breathe even though I actually can. But never fear --- I have children's liquid cold medication that tastes sort of like grapes. Seriously, it's not that bad. More bad news: I had a doctor's appointment this morning and no information about it, so I missed a checkup. And this is a very worrying thing because it means that I will have to wait months and months to find out what's wrong with me. I have an internship this summer and as far as I know obgyns don't work on weekends . . . and I feel awkward about asking for a few hours off for a doctor's appointment. It's slacking off. Even though it sort of isn't. Maybe I should develop a less twisted work ethic?

++ annyihra

Birthday

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 16:52:40 GMT

Lunch = tentacle monsters. I had seafood pasta, and there were mussels in it. Still-in-their-shell mussels. They were fantastic. (I've never had mussels before.) And then . . . tentacle monsters! Tasty tentacle monsters! With fire! And lightning! And reanimated chipmunks! And raccoons! ON FIRE! . . . well, maybe not that. But I did eat some tentacle monsters. They had small, cute tentacles. And they were delicious with the pasta. Yum!

Oh, and my computer is now running Fedora Core 9. And I have a circuit board necklace. (Go Ἑρμῆς!) The wireless is . . . well, utterly fail at the moment because it won't copy the driver info into the kernel (maybe it'll work once I reboot . . . ?), even though b43-fwcutter is totally fine about extracting wl_apsta.o to my /lib/firmware directory. Must ask someone about this eventually. Everything else seems to be going fairly well at the moment. Hooray Ethernet.

Also, got some people I know into Order of the Stick. ^_^ That comic is WIN.

Oh . . . did I mention that I am now 21 and can therefore buy alcohol? I foresee some cooking experiments . . . mmm . . . like putting wine in my pasta sauce now . . .

++ annyihra

Flood

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:23:12 GMT

According to my parents, my hometown just made the news. And not for anything good. My hometown excels at making the news for things like tornadoes, floods, etc. And guess what? My town is about to flood. The flood should peak on the 18th or 19th of June. I am due to arrive back in the States on the 18th. Due to this flooding . . . situation . . . I have no idea what's going on, and I'm really worried. I'm worried about my cat Yoshi, who I have not seen in the past six months. I'm less worried about my dad and my sisters because I think they can get through it, but I'd like to know what they're doing. They're going to use Culver-Stockton as the assembly point for everyone who gets displaced.

Please, please, please, please, please let the sand bags hold!

My mom and I are E-mailing back and forth, and we're not sure that my flight from Atlanta to Saint Louis is actually happening once I do the entire across-the-Atlantic thing. She wants to change my flight so that I go to Ithaca instead, and I agree with her. It's just that I want to see my kitty because I'm worried about her. I wish that my mom had taken her while moving to Ithaca earlier this spring . . . but hey, can't change the past.

This means my flight from STL to DC will need to be changed as well.

Gods, I love traveling!

Oh . . . and please, if you're of the religious persuasion . . . um, since you're not in the Midwest and can't sandbag my town, could you, like, pray or something? Please? It would mean a lot to me. If you're not, um . . . can I get an e-hug or e-massage?

I'm really stressed out at the moment, so don't take it personally if I decide to bitch at you about something. It's not personal.

++ annyihra

Simple Things

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:23:41 GMT

Feeling less like a zombie now. Today, I sort of thought I would go to Glastonbury, but after realizing exactly how much travel was involved in that, I decided that I'd just go to London instead. I went to the Royal Observatory and the British Museum (for the fifth time in the past few months). This time, my camera decided to work. Now, many of you may remember this despairing and somewhat comical entry I wrote a while ago when the radiator happened to my room, where I said that my camera had failed. I dried it out for a really long time, and when I put in batteries it started up again. Now, it started up again, but it would eat batteries the moment I turned it off. So I have forgotten to bring my camera to the British Museum. Several times. I have been there with my camera, fresh batteries, and an expectant smile, and it has not worked. And this time I had back-up batteries. Not only that, but my camera would turn back on after I shut it off without changing the batteries.

Now, that was a helluva lot of walking, especially on four and a half hours of sleep. I nearly fell asleep on the way to London, and I was sort of nodding off on the train ride back. And I was cranky on the train ride back. In fact, I felt tired and cranky because I still have to finish packing things. But then I finished my laundry, and had some decent food.

And oh, did I mention that trying out new recipes really cheers me up?

While I was in the British Museum looking at a book that I want to get when I'm back in the United States, I found a sort of pancake recipe that was used in Ancient Rome. I say "sort of" because it calls for absolutely no eggs, and uses honey instead of sugar because people in Europe didn't use that stuff yet. So I decided to try my shot at remembering the recipe, and I made the food this evening. It called for 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of water, 2 tablespoons of honey, and one tablespoon of sesame seeds. So . . . I sort of didn't have a Standard measuring cup and instead eyeballed pretty much . . . everything. It was fantastic. Really gooey insides! . . . and now I feel so much better. I love making stuff. ^_^

++ annyihra

The Snark

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:57:06 GMT

In the middle of the week, I sketched this and did the black marker outline, but I didn't have time to color it or anything until this evening.

May the Snark be with you!

++ annyihra

A Pause

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:50:16 GMT

I have been so busy these past few days that it's not even funny. Friday was Crisis Day. Saturday was the day of before-birthday birthday parties. (By the way, I'm turning 21 on the 17th!) Saturday was also the day that nengrelim and I went to the Globe to see A Midsummer Night's Dream, and I can definitely say that it was fantastic. I think that's the best staging of Pyramus and Thisbe that I have ever seen. It probably helped that I saw it in a reproduction of the original theater. Watching the mechanicals made me facepalm so many times from all of the jokes in it, and the two little girls sitting on the benches below us kept looking back to see why we laughed so hard. (They'll get it in a few years.) Now I have a bit of time to sort of, you know, breathe. 'Tis good.

In addition to that, I finished writing the final scene of my novel on the train to and from London Waterloo, and during A Midsummer Night's Dream's intermission. I merely need to type it up, fit the two narratives together, and start reading my novel for things that don't make logical sense. There are a few scenes and pieces of scenes that I will need to rework. But overall, I feel closer than any time in the past to finishing it.

This is the last line:

If this was the monster, Tenes didn't know if a word existed for himself.

Now I will have more time to devote to my other projects. This is exciting. But first --- wait, is that a pan-Hellenic flame war going on? Time to break out more Rush lyrics!

Rush - Second Nature:

A memo to a higher office
Open letter to the powers that be
To a god, a king, a head of state
A captain of industry
To the movers and the shakers...
Can't everybody see?

It ought to be second nature
I mean, the places where we live
Let's talk about this sensibly
We're not insensitive
I know progress has no patience
But something's got to give

I know you're different
You know I'm the same
We're both too busy
To be taking the blame
I'd like some changes
But you don't have the time
We can't go on thinking
It's a victimless crime
No one is blameless
But we're all without shame
We fight the fire while we're feeding the flames

Folks have got to make choices
And choices got to have voices
Folks are basically decent
Conventional wisdom would say
But we read about the exceptions
In the papers every day

It ought to be second nature
At least, that's what I feel
Now I lay me down in Dreamland
I know perfect's not for real
I thought we might get closer
But I'm ready to make a deal

Today is different, and tomorrow the same
It's hard to take the world the way that it came
Too many rapids keep us sweeping along
Too many captains keep on steering us wrong
It's hard to take the heat
It's hard to lay blame
To fight the fire while we're feeding the flames

++ annyihra

Grapeshot

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 20:06:42 GMT

1) I've had the following song stuck in my head for the past few days:

Virtuality (Rush)

Like a shipwrecked mariner adrift on an unknown sea
Clinging to the wreckage of the lost ship Fantasy

I'm a castaway, stranded in a desolate land
I can see the footprints in the virtual sand

Net boy, net girl
Send your signal 'round the world
Let your fingers walk and talk
And set you free

Net boy, net girl
Send your impulse 'round the world
Put your message in a modem
And throw it in the cyber sea

Astronauts in the weightlessness of pixellated space
Exchange graffiti with a disembodied race

I can save the universe in a grain of sand
I can hold the future in my virtual hand

Let's dance tonight
To a virtual song
Press this key
And you can play along

Let's fly tonight
On our virtual wings
Press this key
To see amazing things

Like a pair of vagabonds who wave between two passing trains
Or the glimpse of a woman's smile through a window in the rain

I can smell her perfume, I can taste her lips
I can feel the voltage from her fingertips

Net boy, net girl
Send your heartbeat round the world

2) I had a dream a few days ago that before I left England for the States, I found a hideously cheap flight to Athens and decided to go at the last minute, after nengrelim showed me her awesome ticket . . . and then I woke up. Fantastic dream. Granted, it's cheaper to fly from England to Athens than from the States to Athens . . . but the value of the US dollar has been steadily decreasing since I arrived in January.

3) I have finally gotten past the first line of my novel's ending sequence. Granted, I was so tired that I had started to hallucinate little black things out of the corners of my eyes, but at least I got something down on paper. Here's hoping I get the pacing and blocking down properly.

4) |-|3r|\/|3z r w1nz0r.

5) I go back to the States on the 18th. And then the fun really begins.

6) BBC iPlayer, you've got some explaining to do. Why won't you frakkin load?

++ annyihra

Prayer

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:20:56 GMT

May Athene Nike and Aphrodite Nikephoros support me, and Hermes Logios grant me eloquence. I have given you libations and barley. Aphrodite, I have given you a Euro coin with one of your images on the back of it. Hermes, I have thrown coins to the wind for you. Please stand by me, and I will leave shiny pence on the ground and give you milk. Mësahelepui.

++ annyihra

Updates

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:06:00 GMT

Earlier, someone indicated that they wanted a heads-up for when I update my other blog. Well, here's everything for May:

On Daryl Hine's Translation of Early Greek Works
Phoenix Reborn
Hands Raised in Prayer to Apollon . . .

So that's it in that area.

In other news, I'm finally on the ending segment of my novel. This is a very emotional moment for me, and I dread what I now have to write. On one level . . . yes, I could change the ending. I could make it less bittersweet. On another . . . that's not the way things go, and it would be wrong for me to change the conclusion to make it settle more easily with my morals. I owe it to the characters not to back down. Karanai-mëi va di. My sorrow is heavy.

++ annyihra

Writing

Sat, 31 May 2008 18:58:50 GMT

As I am five sequences away from finishing my novel and getting to the point at which I'll dissect it for coherency of form and meaning, I thought I'd just share something about the way my writing has changed over the past few years. The characters have gotten far less emo, and have boundaries between themselves and others. There are more consequences for actions. While the immortals (tesekhaira) were more the focus of earlier drafts, the major ones are becoming more background characters than the protagonists. There's only so much you can do to make readers feel sympathetic with something that's lived so long that you can hardly consider it human anymore.

. . . of course, Tenes is an emo bastard who has no idea what he wants in life. But that's just who he is.

++ annyihra

Smithies Are Awesome

Thu, 29 May 2008 23:15:48 GMT

Did I mention that, in spite of Smith Housing screwing me over, I really love Smith?

Some of the alums in the London area got us remaining study-abroad women to go to this fantastic place a few blocks away from Euston Station for dinner called Diwana Bhel Poori House, which specializes in some kind of South Indian cuisine. The food took a bit of getting used to---it was a bit spicy until I got used to the very different flavor---but man, that was fantastic. I saw Amy there, and there were one or two other people. We spent time doing what Smithies do best: bitching aboout the school we love. I had a great time.

Also went to the British Museum. Was foiled again in my attempt to take photographs with my semi-broken camera. Must remember spare batteries next time and remember that the batteries short out if I turn the damn thing off.

Funness. And I'm sort of tired now from staying up writing my novel until 3 AM and forcing myself up before 10 AM. Well, today it was more like 4 AM and 9 AM . . . but you get the picture. Fun headaches for all!

++ annyihra

Spiders

Wed, 28 May 2008 11:39:03 GMT

First thought when I see a spider: OMG WTF IS IT POISONOUS SCREAM YELP JUMP BACK ---
Second thought: Oh, wait. They don't have black widows here. I feel slightly stupid about that scream now.
Third thought: Hm. That spider is too close to me for comfort. Is there some sort of stick I can use to move the damn thing without touching it just in case it is poisonous?
Fourth thought: What the hell? Who said that coming down on your silken thread in front of my face was a good idea?!
Fifth thought: Where the hell are all of these spiders coming from?

So, yeah. A spider just decided to say hello to me. That thing was huge, much larger than Yo-Yo Oh-No (yes, Nadia and I have named and developed an attachment to the gravity-challenged spider in our kitchen). But more importantly, what the hell? Where are all of these things coming from? Why have they been so absent up until now?

In the middle of an adrenaline high,
annyihra

Blogs and Such

Sun, 25 May 2008 18:40:30 GMT

LJ and I have been together ever since I stopped using my Xanga, way back in the day. I've grown a lot since then, and LJ fit my new purpose. Its friends list helps me keep up with people I know, and I have a wide variety of settings that I can use. However . . . that's not the whole story. Recently, I've started to write things involving, say, religion, and I've decided that I'm going to explore entries of that nature elsewhere - say, on my little-used Blogger account. It's a better venue, and that way I can separate stuff out that I'm sure many of my sci-fi/gaming friends don't want to scroll through on their Friends updates.

If you want me to post something here every time I update the other blog --- that's for the one or two people who may actually be interested in what I have to say on certain subjects --- plese reply to this post and tell me. Otherwise, I expect that anyone who wants to read the thing will go here:

An Apple In Pandemonium: http://pandemoniumapple.blogspot.com/

++ annyihra

Random Updates

Tue, 20 May 2008 16:01:54 GMT

1) Cleaned up my Facebook profile so that I can accept Lindsay's request to be my friend. Yes, my little sister. She's actually listed Ithaca as her hometown. That's promising.
2) Updated my deviantART. I may post a few of my short-shorts on there in a little bit. Haven't posted any prose there since 2005. I have put up two poems: "Hymn to Poseidon" and "On Visiting the British Museum," along with a new screenshot and a new deviantID.
3) Joined the Neokoroi Yahoo! Group. It seems amazingly fun.
4) Wrote some of a scene from Storyline 2 of TRS. I can't wait until I'm done with this part.

On Saturday night, I was up until 5 AM (when the birds started chirping in expectation of dawn) . . . so I didn't go to bed until Sunday morning. I was having a conversation with someone. Gotta love conversations. On Sunday, I went to bed at two-something because I stayed up for a large chunk of the evening (read: after midnight) reading Prometheus Bound and hanging out with my computer. Last night, I read some writings of Emperor Julian. Good stuff, but it was a bit confusing because I didn't read the Wikipedia article on Attis for basic info until . . . just now. (Not having Internet in one's room sucks, you know?) (Oh, and guess what, nengrelim? Catullus wrote a poem about Attis! I know how much you <3 Catullus. Hee.)

This past BSG was very good, so much better than the "Christianity is better rawr" stuff we've been getting. It had so much plot!

++ annyihra