HSU IT Department

::waves at lovely online friends who are still here after all this time::

One of my goals for 2022 is to get back into writing, here on LJ/DW and in RL. (I posted all of three times in 2021, gah.) I'll try to get an update on My Life and Other Comedies posted sometime this week, but to kick things off I'm stealing a book-related meme from several other folks. Because who around here doesn't like talking about books, right?? Here are the questions:

1- What can you say about a book you are reading right now? Unfinished please, or at least recent.
-2- Who is the worst Mary Sue you've ever encountered in a book.
-3- Name a book series that you felt very entertained by.
-4- Name a book that challenged you and changed your Weltanschauung.
-5- Which book or series of books have you felt repulsed by?
-6- Are there any books you own more than one copy of? Name two if so.
-7- How often do you re-read books you've loved before? What are a few?
-8- Which authors have you read this year? A few will do.


( And here are my answers )

Yay, I have successfully backed up my LJ over on DW!! For the time being I'll be staying over on LJ, but will cross-post so as to keep them both up-to-date. Not that I think anything will happen, but what with LJ's servers moving to Russia and a few other things, I just feel better having things backed up. Plus, y'know, I am an archivist so I kinda feel like I'm obligated :) I'm the same person over there as I am here, so if any of you are also on DW, please feel free to friend my DW account.

Good Thing the First: I am caught up on reading mini_fest, yay! So many wonderful little stocking stuffers, and one or two more substantial offerings. My favorite so far is a Minerva/Severus piece entitled Dark and Deep. Doesn't that title make you want to go there right now and read it?

Good Thing the Second: Real life is FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY slowing down, and I am so looking forward to getting back on LJ more. Since October when we moved house, it's just been one thing after another and woah, am I ready to slow down a little. I can also take on more of the mod-ly burdens for sshg_giftfest, which to date have been shouldered almost entirely by the valiant amorette, whom I owe big time for doing SO much more than her fair share. She is a true rock!

Good Thing the Third: Mr Psmith graduates tomorrow!!!! I am so proud of him I can hardly stand it :)

Good Thing the Fourth: This, shared with me by a fellow nerdgeek at work today. There are no words for how very much I love this:

I'm supposed to be packing today, because the movers are coming on Thursday and the house is sooooo not ready for them. We have loads of random crap everywhere that has to be dealt with: plastic bags of candle stubs, odd gloves, cracked pots, old shoes, clothes we no longer wear, ancient jars of herbs in the back of the cabinet, mysterious keys that unlock who-knows-what, dessicated magic markers, old cans of paint, and oh, the swarming hordes of dust bunnies...

Le sigh.

I'm also supposed to be writing an article for the next issue of Carpe Nocturne, which is due on Friday, but I can't seem to come up with the hook to make it all fall into place.

Instead of doing ANY of that, I went and signed up for this, because the mods put out a plea for a few more folks to ease their matching, and because nursedarry taunted me into it:


happy_trekmas is open for signups until October 4th!

...because a Certain Someone (::waves at teddyradiator::) likes keys and I found these on Etsy and had to share:

Keys of Azhar
Keys to Atlantis

I devoutly hope to be back on LJ more regularly in another week or so. I have been so busy with freelance work, regular work, co-mod duties for my writing group, prepping for teaching a workshop in a couple of weeks, and getting everything settled for my upcoming two weeks of vacation that I have had zero time for anything else. Not only have I not posted here, I have not even had time to read and so have no idea what's going on with y'all (though I did catch shiv5468's post about the hoo-ha fairy which made me laugh immoderately). I hope everyone is well and happy.

In other news, it's actually really truly finally spring here!!!!!!

...I have been crazy busy, thank you for asking. Taxes, bills, "real" job, freelance work, writing, keeping up with my weekly minimal wine consumption requirement, you know. On the plus side, whopping big tax refund (which will go towards the kitchen re-do) and paying clients, w00t!

And hey, it's National Poetry Month! In honor of that, I give you a wonderful bit of Snape-ish sonnetry: He Wears His Cloak Like Moonlight Wears the Night. As some of you may know, I'm a big fan of sonnets. Like medieval miniatures, or the short story, the compressed space means that not a single line or word can be wasted; everything has to be carefully and precisely chosen. It's difficult to do well, and lovely to read the results.

Also in the exciting world of sonnets: in honor of Shakespeare's 450th birthday this year the New York Shakespeare Exchange is creating a whole slew of videos: 154 sonnets read by 154 different actors in 154 different locations in and around NYC. The project was funded by $49,255 raised on Kickstarter -- go crowdfunding!! And at the end of the project, you'll be able to buy the DVD. Since Sir Pat has been lurking about NYC with his rawther young girlfriend, I'm hoping very much that he'll be one of the 154 :)

Finally, an odd but very cool new art form: People attaching LEDs to their Roombas and setting up a camera with long-term exposure, et voila! time-lapse robot vacuum spirograph. Ah, technology...

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?

I've just come off three very intense weeks editing a 300+ page tome for a client -- excellent content but the wording/phrasing needed considerable massaging, plus there was a good bit of fact-checking he wanted done (well there would be with 600+ footnotes, wouldn't there?). So the last three weeks have been 9-5 "real job" and then 6-midnight freelance job. I've hardly spoken to Spouse other than to mumble "Pizza or chinese? Can you go get it?", I've had zero time to read (fic or otherwise), and have subsisted mostly on coffee and take-out. Blargh.

The deadline was yesterday and I delivered, so tonight I came home and had NOTHING TO DO. Do you hear me? NOTHING AT ALL, I was free to do what I wished to do. I got to cook! I got to read!! I got to have a glass or two of wine and play with the kittehs!!! I got to read all eleventy billion prompts at sshg_exchange!!!!!! Plus, as a bonus, I got to go a bit sentimental over tonight's episode of Big Bang Theory. "Oyyyy veeeeeyyyyy!" and *gasp* Sheldon took Amy's hand :D

Indeed, I am a happy camper.

Tomorrow I get back on track with LJ and posting my 100 Surprises. Teaser: The next two, or maybe three, will involve the reptilian hindbrain. I'm sure you just can't wait...

Holy *%&$*. Busiest week ever in my whole life, I think, between winding up commitments at work for a grant-funded project that ends Nov. 30th and (on my own time) two freelance jobs, one editing, one indexing, not to mention the usual housekeeping duties. Made my usual 4am delivery of the index (note to self: polish time management skills). Now indulging/rewarding self with Cupcake chardonnay and a positively decadent eclair. Ooh the chocolate...ooh the pastry...ooh the creamy puddingy stuff in the middle. Nom nom nom.

Earlier today I tore through No. 10 in the Sandman series, The Kindly Ones. Features one, or three, or possibly six or nine, of my favorite characters depending on how you look at it. There are the Erinyes, the Furies, but he conflates them with the Fates (Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos) as well as with the Celtic triple goddess of maiden, mother and crone. The speech patterns of the three suggest that Gaimain read, and enjoyed, Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain. The Fates appear in at least two of Alexander's books as Orddu, Orwen and Orgoch; they use terms such as "My duck," "My gosling," "My little tadpole," and one of them -- Orgoch, I think -- is always eating something unpleasant. The same goes for the Kindly Ones: they use similar endearments and one of them has a dead mouse for tea. As usual, Gaiman leaves me speechless at the immensity of his talent. The books are so rich, there are so many tales hinted at in passing; you whiz past, carried on by the main story arc, but constantly brushed by wings and tailfeathers of other things, glimpses of myth and legend and fairy tales, saying, "Hold on, what about -- and wait, what was that there? And...oh, that one, I want to know about that!" He's brilliant.

To balance it out, I'm also reading about the most conventional, tidy, suburban, boring person every invented: Sinclair Lewis' Babbit. I can't stand him already, I hope he turns out to be better than he forebodes at present. Mostly he makes me think of the line from Auntie Mame: "Should she know that I think you've turned into one of the most beastly, bourgeouis, Babbity little snobs on the Eastern seaboard? Or will you be able to make that quite clear without any help from me?"

As usual, some cruel conjunction of the planets has placed SSIAW* during the same month as three freelance jobs, a two-week teaching gig, and oh yeah, my wallet got stolen. Needless to say, I'm well on my way to having just as good an SSIAW this time around as I did for the last two -- i.e., very bad indeed. Zero for two so far. Ah, well. At least my two favorite teams made it to March Madness, the bank is refunding the $1200 the Sinister Gang of Thieves managed to spend at Macy's before my cards were shut down, and the pub where it was stolen gave us free beverages on Saturday. Life is not all beer and skittles, but neither is it all dust and ashes...

* Short Story In A Week, see here.