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 )

Welp, I've signed up for sshg_giftfest again! My prompts are here, and I'm kind of pleased with them :)

Signups are open until Sept 1, so if you're thinking about it now is a good time to Apparate on over...

And I'm excited!!

I love making words on paper with a pen. I love the glide of the ink, the feel of the pen in my hand, the curves and lines, the way letters build words, words build sentences, sentences build messages. I love the way a letter in an envelope looks and feels when it's all addressed and stamped and waiting to be sent: the perfect size, the neat square corners, the heft and firmness of cardstock, the fun of choosing a stamp from among the many designs and images. I am agog at the fact that a bunch of total strangers will pass this small fragile thing along for me, hand to hand, all the way across the country or even around the world -- it's like magic!! I love thinking about my letter arriving in a mailbox, sitting there like a friendly little long-distance wave, and someone opening it, and having a nicer day because they got something in the mail that wasn't a bill. A letter touches another person in a way an email can't. As the Smithsonian Postal Museum says on their blog, letters are "physical manifestations of the senders. The loved ones’ hands wrote the words, folded the letter and sealed it into an envelope. Each letter still brings with it that gift, a physical connection that can’t be replicated through phones or tablets."

I have a huge stash of cards, notecards, stationery, etc. which I am always adding to, and I enjoy sorting through it looking for just the right one for a particular person or situation. I also have a stash of all kinds of different stamps; every time I go to the post office I ask the clerk to show me what new designs they have. At the moment I have stamps featuring Scooby Doo, Hot Wheels cars, the art of magic, ice cream sundaes, Disney villains, sharks, cactus flowers, and our National Parks. Alas, I missed out on the Mr. Rogers stamps -- they sold out in just a few days.

The challenge of National Letter-Writing Month is (duh) to see how many letters you can write. And I'd like to write to YOU. No, seriously, I really would :)

If you'd like to get a letter from me, just comment here and say so.* In order to make my letter of interest to you, and so I don't end up writing ten different versions of "what I did this week," please also tell me something you're interested in (horror movies, biodiversity, fantasy novels, politics, writing, cake decorating, collecting stuffed wombats) or ask me a question (what's the best bodice-ripper I ever read? do I think college should be free? what happens when we die? is Queen Elizabeth actually a shape-shifting reptile alien?). Anything goes!

Here's the catch, though: When you get my letter, you must write me back. Nothing fancy is required -- literally anything will suffice, even two lines on a postcard. Are you game? Of course you are!!

* No need to provide your address in the comment; if I don't already have it, I'll send you a PM asking for it. Also I am more than happy to write to people overseas, so if you're not in the U.S., don't let that stop you!

I love buying and sending Christmas cards, so this is my annual call for folks to enable my addiction :) If you would like to receive a card from me, please comment below and then PM me your snail mail address.

FAQs:

1) Will this be a real card or an e-card?
A real card, made of paper and ink, sent with a stamp.

2) What sort of stamp?
Probably a cute one with a holiday theme.

3) Do I have to send you one in return?
Nope, although I also love getting them, so if you want to, *yay*

4) Do I have to be in the US to receive one of these fabulous things?
Nope, I'll send 'em anywhere.

5) What if I don't celebrate Christmas, or am a grinch and just don't like it?
Doesn't matter. You just have to like getting something in the mail that isn't a bill or a request for money. (Actually I guess a bill IS a request for money, but you know what I mean.)

6) Will my card contain angels, crosses, or mention of Jesus?
Nope. I'm an atheist, so for me, Jesus is not the reason for the season. Please note that I have no objection whatsoever to anyone else inviting him along, but I myself celebrate the holiday in a strictly faith-neutral manner.

7) Will my card contain bad puns, silly jokes, cartoon animals, anthropomorphized vegetation, and/or generally positive sentiments about tolerance, peace, and the value of loving one another?
It very well may. I haven't bought them yet, so who knows??

8) Will my card be homemade?
Do I look like Martha Stewart? (Translation: No.)

9) What if I don't like my card?
You are free to fold, spindle, mutilate, burn, bury, or recycle it, no questions asked. But really, who doesn't like getting a card???

10) When may I expect this thing to arrive in my mailbox?
"Reply hazy, try again."

I have no idea what the time difference between here and there is (though I should know, because nursedarry lives there too), so I'm just going to go ahead and post this today.

For the talented and entertaining shiv5468, because blond with peacock. Happy birthday!!

(Edit: Please note, this isn't my own work [I only wish!!]. Click the image for more info about the artwork.)

Take the day off from work and read "DM of the Rings," a very funny comic in which a long-suffering dungeon master tries to persuade Dave -- I mean Frodo -- and eight other players to stay in character as he leads them through a lengthy adventure in a strange new place called Middle Earth. I have been giggling away for an hour straight and we're not even through Moria yet. If you have ever been a DM/GM (*koff*tcpip*koff*), you'll find the creator's comments underneath each episode funny as hell, too -- I was particularly amused by those for Episode XIII.

"Lord of the Rings is more or less the foundation of modern D&D. The latter rose from the former, although the two are now so estranged that to reunite them would be an act of savage madness. Imagine a gaggle of modern hack-n-slash roleplayers who had somehow never been exposed to the original Tolkien mythos, and then imagine taking those players and trying to introduce them to Tolkien via a D&D campaign..."

Episode I: The Copious Backstory ==>

THANK YOU to everyone :) for the warm birthday wishes and virtual gifts, and to the wonderful rivertempest for the real gift of Snape's wand (yes! Snape's wand!!!) -- it is a thing of beauty and I shall cherish it.

Also, my mom sent me this. She knows me well lol.

My god am I glad the last two months are over. Major projects behind or plunging into crisis mode at work (again, or still, depending on your point of view), a visit to my mom (which was lovely but included much discussion of legal/estate stuff, which always depresses me), a conference whereat not only was I on the Board of Directors but I had to teach a brand new workshop I'd never taught before, my godson graduating high school (there is NO WAY he is that old, it's impossible), taking on co-mod responsibilities for my online writing group, an overflow of editing work for my freelance clients, Marvin the laptop died and I had to migrate my entire life onto Marvin II...arrgghh. I'm sure there were other things but I must have blocked them out in a vain attempt at mental self-defense. They'll probably surface later and cause me to leap up screaming at some awkward moment. In the middle of dinner, say, or while at the theatre.

Somewhere along the line, though, I did manage to watch the last season of Mad Men -- what a wild ride that was! -- and last night I finally got caught up on Wolf Hall. I want to have Mark Rylance's babies.

Now all I have left to do is finish my sshg_promptfest fic which is due in nine days, get ready for my trip west for nursedarry's dad's 100th birthday (!!), and write a paper for a conference in August. It'll be like shooting fish in a barrel.

And of course I have to catch up on what's new with all of YOU, my flist. So, what's the single most interesting thing that's happened to each of you in the past two months, since I abandoned you all in the middle of March? Tell, tell!

Still lots of free books left on my Annual Shelf Weeding and Book Giveaway -- stop by and claim a few!

No need to pay postage or do anything in return, but if you want to, please give to one of the following excellent causes: Planned Parenthood (people), the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (animals), or the Kansas Rural Center (sustainable agriculture).

I got this from ladyoneill and it's...a little creepy how good it is. Is it harvesting my LJ tags? No, because some of the words aren't my tags. Is it sucking in the text of all my entries and digesting them? Trolling my goodreads shelves? Reading my mind? Number 5 in particular kind of weirds me out. But yeah, this is all TOTALLY me :)

Except for the fact that it mentions only FOUR BOOKS. That's just wrong.

...all of you, for your kind words and warm thoughts and hugs; they were and are much appreciated. G's funeral is tomorrow, and then we can begin to figure out how life goes on. Because it *does* go on, which is the difficult gift at the heart of all loss.