HSU IT Department

These two kids are absolutely INCREDIBLE. I had no idea you could rock a cello like a fiddle! I nearly bounced out of my skin just watching/listening, they got me so riled up. I love musicians who make instruments do new things, not in a twisted distorted smash-the-guitars way but in a push-it-to-the-max way. Paganini has nothing on these boys. (When this one finishes, click on "I Will Wait" for their more traditional but still gorgeous cello experience.)


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And if that wasn't enough, here they are on America's Got Talent with their teacher -- their Russian grandfather, who cries as he watches from backstage ::snif:: These kids are really wonderful...


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...you're right.

This very cool infographic shows pay for men and women by state. Nice going, Louisiana and Wyoming.

Also, Happy World Octopus Day!!

Yes, I am still alive. Real life has been ver' ver' busy of late, what with freelance editing clients, getting my minerva_fest entry in, trying to get caught up on hp_silencio (which posted a stunning and heartbreaking Minerva-centric entry on Saturday, thanks to teddyradiator for pointing me to it), birthday parties for nieces and nephews, and to top it off my online fantasy/sci fi writing workshop (which I'm now co-modding, and yes we would love to have new members) is running its twice-a-year short story in a week during the month of October.

Whew.

I have managed to cram some reading in here and there: a YA post-apoc novel about seven young children trying to survive alone following a mass epidemic (Fire-Us #1: Kindling), a highly unusual, meditative and thoughtful post-apoc tale of perhaps the last woman on earth (The Hauntings of Playing God), a mediocre suspense/horror story about a missing Karloff/Lugosi film and a few too many other things (Ancient Images), a beach-read Gilded-Age romance (American Heiress), and a somewhat disappointing Angela Carter novel (The Magic Toyshop) about orphans and creepy puppets. (Links go to my reviews, if I've done one.)

And I'm currently a third of the way through Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (HPMOR), which is quite fun: what if Harry Potter were a child prodigy raised by a physicist and tried to apply the scientific method to magic? Very much AU; all the familiar characters are there with essentially the same characteristics (Dumbledore twinkles and is a bit mad, Hermione is brilliant, McGonagall is proper yet with underlying affection) but everything else gets twisted round in new and interesting ways. The author must know quite a lot about the fanfic world because he works in a lot of inside jokes about various fandom habits and oddities (e.g. the Harry/Draco pairing), but it's all done very affectionately.

I intend to follow it up with Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles, mentioned by kellychambliss, a spoof of the series as fundamentalist Christian. Promises to be amusing.

Ah, and last night we saw Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which was fabulous. I sympathized hugely with Vanya's rant about how we used to lick stamps and have typewriters, and the actress who was Nina (over)played her like a young female William Shatner parody, which made me and Mr Psmith laugh immoderately. A good time was had by all :)

So there you go. What's new with you, flist?

Well hello there, LJ, long time no see!

I have been AWOL for quite some time lately. Partly this is because Fearless Leader of my dept is leaving has left and we are all busy sorting out who does what until we get a new Fearless Leader, partly it's because the semester has started up again so I suddenly now have lots of editing clients beating a path to my door, partly it's because the deadlines for minerva_fest and luciusbigbang are LOOMING HUGE on the horizon, and partly it's because I got my grubby little hands on the third in Lev Grossman's Magicians trilogy (squeee!) and I decided that I wanted to re-read the first two before getting into the third one so I wouldn't miss anything. So I've been submerged in The Magicians and The Magician King for the last four days (and WOW I'd forgotten how good they are!) and as of yesterday am deep into The Magician's Land. Yay!

While my dad was here a couple of weeks ago, we saw Lucy, with Scarlett Johansson and a VERY sexy French guy. Has anyone else seen it? All three of us thought it was just tremendous (probably because it's not a Hollywood movie, therefore has some originality to it). I only wish that it had been based on a book so that I could have had a deeper/longer version of it. An intriguing exploration of what a superintelligent being might be like and what they might choose to do. It has some similarities with Ted Chiang's novella Understand but the main character makes a very different set of choices.

On the fandom side of things, I've signed up for the always-fun low-stress mini_fest (yay!), but does anyone know what's happened to hp_holidaygen? It appears that reveals were never posted last year, and the comm has basically been silent since last December. I hope it has not been abandoned.

Finally, I am VERY happy to say that we have 46 participants for the inaugural sshg_giftfest!! We have not only attracted some experienced "old salts" to the ship but some new sailors as well, and I look forward to the wonderful stories, arts and crafts that will result :)

I don't really understand this viral ice bucket challenge thing (are they supposed to be raising money? how does this work??) but I was hugely amused to discover the the Old Spice Guy has done his usual clever twist on it. Enjoy -- and if you know anyone named John Johnson, be sure to pass it on :)


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Prompting is open at mini_fest! Signups are still open at sshg_giftfest!! hp_goldenage is going to have an anonymous promptfest this fall!!!

So much fun, so little time...

Borrowed from toblass and savine_snape:

After all the recent terrible tragedies that have and are happening it's time for some positivity and kindness to happen.

So, I'm going to grab the pay-it-forward idea and put a little twist on it. The first twelve people to comment will get a surprise from me at some random point during the next twelve months.

All I ask is that in your comment, you share something with me about yourself that I may not know otherwise. This might be a good opportunity for me to get to know my friends better as well.

Ooh, I can't wait to see what I learn ::rubs hands in anticipation::

sshg_giftfest signups start tomorrow, woohoo!!


Signups open Aug 13-27th

I don't know anyone named Gelert, but if I meet them I shall beware.

sshg_promptfest was another sterling collection this year; I'm only sorry that my July was such that I wasn't able to give it the attention it deserves. I did manage to look at and respond to all the art, and I hope to work my way through the fics over the next few weeks. Many of my favorite contributors participated, and I'm looking forward to enjoying the results of their creative fabulosity!

Now that the Big Reveal is up, I can admit to being the author of "The Heart the Adder Gave Him." Thanks to palathene for a wonderful prompt that gave me lots of leeway to explore what it might mean for Hermione to suffer a prophetic vision. I'm rather proud of this one :)

Title: The Heart the Adder Gave Him (LJ) (AO3)
Rating: PG
Summary: Hermione has made a prophecy about Snape, most of which she doesn’t understand. Snape understands part of it all too well. But what can the rest of it mean?