HSU IT Department

Ack, what is this new posting interface?? Bleah, LiveJournal, I loved you just the way were, why must you change? And on Valentine's Day, too >:|

I did manage to ship all the books claimed by my lovely flisties (watch your mailboxes, y'all!), and write a little ♥ Valentine note ♥ for Mr Psmith and prop it on the coffee pot before leaving this morning, but other than that All The Things have been work work work for about the last ten days, to the point that I am so far behind on sshg_exchange I fear I will never catch up and even missed my scheduled post on one_bad_man.

"What?!?!" I hear you gasp. Alas, yes.

Among all the things: helping to pack and load 40 pallets of material for transfer to another institution (involving dust, red rot, and the occasional mouse skeleton), dealing with a fit of pique from one of my direct reports, reviewing grant applications, filling out annual evals for staff, spotting (aka dodging) a bat in the hallway, absorbing two new staff members from a freshly dissolved department (said dissolution being spectacularly sudden and unexpected, even by the now-former head of said department), being handed a new part-timer (at the behest of Powers that Be; fortunately she appears qualified and I do have work for her to do), and finalizing the Specification That Shall Not Be Named. There was more, but that's enough to be going on with.

Oh, and the freelance work. Mustn't forget the paying customers.

So yeah, life is pretty crazy busy at the moment. How are things in your world?

The snapecase reveal went up a while ago -- so many great stories this year!! -- and I can therefore cop to being the author of "Wormwood and Gall." Thanks to all who were kind enough to leave comments!

Title: Wormwood and Gall (on LJ) (on AO3)
Age-Range Category: Three
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Severus Snape; Albus Dumbledore; cameo by Lucius Malfoy
Rating: G
Warning(s): Angst.
Note: No specific date is given for when Dumbledore hires Snape, other than sometime in 1981. It's unlikely Dumbledore would have hired him prior to Lily's death, since Snape would have been busy with his espionage work up until then, so I've placed it in late November of 1981, immediately after Dumbledore testifies on Snape's behalf. Also, no date is given for Lucius' appointment to the Board of Governors at Hogwarts, so I have (rather arbitrarily) placed that in the fall of 1982.
Summary: When Severus is offered the job of Potions Master at Hogwarts, he thinks that perhaps life might not be as desolate as it looked. Whether or not this is correct remains to be seen.

Yes, really. It's that time of year again where I weed my bookshelves and remove extra copies of books, books I read and enjoyed and want to pass on, books that weren't my cuppa but might be someone else's, and so on. The books are listed below; all you have to do to claim one (or more) is be the first to comment and ask for it. Claim as many as you like; I pay the shipping, because I love sending my books to happy new homes. If you have questions about any of them I'll be happy to answer if I can, but you should be able to look 'em up on Amazon or GoodReads or heck, just use "the google." Unless otherwise noted, assume they're in very good but not quite new condition. There are even a couple that are like-new, good enough to be a gift.

Really, they're free. No catch. Jump right in, and feel free to spread the word!!

The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason (hc)
The Semi-Attached Couple and the Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden (pb)
A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King (hc; part of the Holmes/Russell series)
The Good Fight by Ralph Nader (hc)
Your House Is On Fire, Your Children All Gone by Stefan Kiesbye (pb)
Lord of the Far Island by Victoria Holt (hc but former library book)
The Shivering Sands by Victoria Holt (hc but former library book, no cover)
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (hc)
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey (pb)
Helliconia Spring by Brian Aldiss (pb)
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein (hc; book club edition)
Houseboat on the Styx by A.F. Moritz (pb)

The Steampunk Trilogy by Paul DiFilippo (hc; includes Victoria, Hottentots, and Walt and Emily)
44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith (pb)
The Physick Books of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe (hc)
New Eves: Science Fiction about the Extraordinary Women of Tomorrow (hc)
Clean & Green by Annie Berthold-Bond (pb; about “green” housekeeping and cleaning)
This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson (pb)
A Study in Sherlock, edited by Laurie R. King (pb)
Codex by Lev Grossman (pb)
Wine Journal (hc; blank journal for recording info about the wines you drink, never used, nice enough it could be a gift)
Creole Cajun Cooking Cards (30 or so printed Southern/Cajun recipe cards in a printed brown paper bag; cards are in great shape but bag looks a little tired)
Kitchen Gardener magazine, 11 issues from Apr/May 1999 to Feb/Mar 2001
Goodnight iPad by Ann Droyd (hc; spoof of Goodnight Moon; nice enough it could be a gift)
Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone (pb – as if anyone on my flist needs this lol)
Never Seen by Waking Eyes by Stephen Dedman (pb)
Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, all 3 volumes (The Wounded Land, The One Tree, White Gold Wielder) (hc; book club edition; jackets worn, faded, a bit raggedy)

"...Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will revive the West End production of Waiting for Godot on Broadway this autumn. The actors will also star in a new production of Harold Pinter's No Man's Land in an out-of-town tryout over the summer. Both productions will be directed by Sean Mathias."
SQUEEEE!!! and SQUEEEE!!! and SQUEEEE!!!

And as if that were not enough, Alan Rickman will also be on Broadway this fall in a production of Krapp's Last Tape -- looky looky!!

I think I may have died and gone to fangirl heaven...

Thing 2 of the 100 Things Poems! "The Highwayman," by Alfred Noyes, has everything: true love and infinite courage, heartbreak and death, a deeply romantic tale and a lovely ghost story. I don't ever remember not knowing this poem. When I was in 8th grade my English teacher gave extra credit if you memorized poems, and this was one of them, but I'm pretty sure I knew it before that. It's best read aloud; it has wonderful rhythmic beat to it that evokes the hoofbeats of the highwayman's galloping horse. I can't come up with a word for how this poem makes me feel -- aching, haunted, sorrowful, longing, it's all of those and none of them and more -- but it's always drawn a real lump-in-the-throat response from me, more so the older I get and the more I revisit it (which is odd, you'd think it's impact would fade). Here are a few stanzas to give the the flavor; the full text is online here.

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard.
He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred.
He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there
But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter,
Bess, the landlord’s daughter,
Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

“One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I’m after a prize to-night,
But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
Then look for me by moonlight,
Watch for me by moonlight,
I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.”

Loreena McKennit has done a gorgeously lush and haunting version of it, which to this day, no matter that I've heard it dozens of times, makes me tear up:

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I've had this one since it came out but was forcing myself to save it as a reward for finishing a bunch of freelance projects I had in-house. Finally got to it last week, yay!! I'm happy to say that it was MUCH better than Pirate King -- more plot and less silliness. Our old friends Mahmoud and Ali, the English-lords-turned-Arab-spies, are back, we have a lively, intelligent young mute boy as a great secondary character, and the story is (as usual) thoroughly grounded in actual history. Her sense of place is tremendous -- she evokes the sights, smells, sounds, and texture of life in French Morocco so vividly! Several real people are featured, including Hubert Lyautey and Abd el Krim and you get a lot of background about the politics, governance and military history of the region.

On the down side, sometimes you get a little too much history and politics, the book is a little heavy on tell as opposed to show (unusual for King), and the Big Reveal at the end was awfully convoluted. I'm still not sure I get it, what with the plots within plots within plots and people faking this loyalty and that (then again, the politics of that part of the world are awfully convoluted, so maybe that's part and parcel of the setting!). I wasn't crazy about the amnesia trope, either; it felt kind of like it was in there as a device, so that the people and relationships could be recapped for people new to the series. My own opinion is that if you come into the middle of a series, well, you should expect to be confused -- if you want to know what's going on, go back and read from the beginning, right?

Anyway, I give it a three out of five: I liked it, but it wasn't my favorite by a long shot. I still like The Beekeeper's Apprentice (the first book in the series) and A Letter of Mary (the third one) the best.

On another note, I discovered last night that Mr Psmith had never seen The Aristocats (can you believe it?! the mind boggles...) so we watched it while we played Scrabble. I'd forgotten how funny the Gabble sisters are :)

First of my 100 Things (100 Poems) blog posts!

"A sonnet might look dinky, but it's somehow big enough to accommodate
love, war, death, and O.J. Simpson. You could fit the whole world in there if
you shoved hard enough."

Or so says Anne Fadiman. And I agree.

I think sonnets are amazing creations: a very strict, very small form, but within it you can say literally anything you like. Anything at all. It's like the difference between bouncing about gleefully on the dance floor and executing a perfect fiery tango without a single misstep, a combination of freedom and structure that can be so much more than the sum of its parts. Or like those medieval miniatures, where you have a very small space in which to work, but within that space you can draw monsters or birds or leaves or tessellated patterns or tiny people, or whatever you like.

At any rate, it's a sadly under-used form these days, perhaps because it takes so much work to craft a good one (it's a bit like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, where you have to keep shifting the little pieces around until they fit just right), so I was thrilled when someone wrote a beautiful one for deeply_horrible's "Bring Back the Bastard" fest this year. It's hard to believe that so much angst and so much history can be packed into so few lines. This is not a happy sonnet, or a love sonnet. This is a bitter and angry sonnet, in which Severus has some choice words for Dumbledore. Hope you like it as much as I did.

Title: From the Beehive
Author: primeideal

I've lived too long for faith that life is fair...

So at some point last year, I took up the gauntlet of the 100 Things Blogging Challenge. I picked "Things that have surprised me." Perhaps the most surprising -- or depressing, depending on your perspective -- thing was that it was damn hard coming up with things that had surprised me. I'm not sure if that's a comment on me, my life, or the world in general.

Anyway, I dropped said gauntlet spectacularly, only making it to nine, which I think was due to picking such an abstract Thing. Several other people picked much more tangible things and had better success (stellamoon for example went with 100 pieces of art and music that have touched her soul and I really enjoyed her posts -- Van Gogh's Willows at Sunset was particularly lovely). So I'm trying again and this time I'm going to do 100 poems. This isn't as stimulating in terms of descriptive writing -- it's pretty challenging to describe a surprise, after all -- but I hope it will be good in terms of making me think about why I like what I like, and what I think works about a piece of poetry.

If nothing else, it will give me something to talk about when I can't think of anything else to talk about, like a writing exercise. Not a bad thing.

So that's New Year's Resolution #1.

New Year's Resolution #2 is to follow through on my promise (threat?) from years past and apply to Clarion West. (Check out this year's instructors -- doesn't Samuel R. Delany look like a cross between Albus Dumbledore and Gimli? Or is it just me?) This year, instead of keeping it a sooper sekrit, I've told a whole bunch of people that I'm going to do it, which means I have to do it or I'll look like an idiot.

I hate looking like an idiot.

A team of Brazilian biologists has discovered a new species of orchid bee and they have named it Euglossa bazinga. According to Dr. André Nemésio, a biology professor at the Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, "The idea was to honor actor Jim Parsons and his brilliant interpretation of Sheldon Cooper. The show exaggerates a little bit, but in a sarcastic way, it shows how things do happen in the academic world," he added. "It is fantastic!"
I am tickled pink :)

Anybody out there not on AO3 that has a desperate yen to be? I have three invitations to give away :)