Blah blah bliddy blah

[ealgylden]

Once upon a time (sophomore year of college, actually), I wrote a final paper for an art history class while I had a 103-degree fever. It turned out well (and I got an A, so yay), because I knew my subject well and my brain was all melty, so I made some rather neat connections and interpretations (none of which I actually remembered making when I reread it later, but oh well). I've since written other papers while fevered, with similar results; it seems that when it comes to my more scholarly pursuits, broiled brain cells are easier to marshal than healthy ones.

But alas, that doesn't seem to apply to LJ. Fever = spamming here, I guess. Sorry about that (not that I feel guilty, really. I tend not to feel a lot of guilt in general, and personally, I often like reading other people's spam. The things people choose to babble about randomly can be the things that lift them out of the teeming morass of "any idiot who can type [and many who can't] can have an livejournal." While a lengthy and insightful treatise on Boromir the Sacrifice or Martin/Danny and class-based assumptions can brighten my whole day, I also enjoy cute cat pictures and tirades about the evils of fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt. Not all the time, of course, but a bit of randomness now and again can add an idiosyncratic twist to all of those terribly astute explications of fannish matters, artful and/or smutty stories and highly attractive photos you folks post.).


Speaking of cats, mine are still worried about me, and it's rather sweet (if a bit scary). Isabella, who looks like the sweetest, fluffiest, cuddliest little stuffed toy of a cat, but is, in fact, Vlad the Impaler reborn, even brought me a woodpecker for my breakfast. A living woodpecker nearly the same size as Izzy herself, and those things are strong, so I'm not sure how she got it. She's a force of nature. Then she tore its throat out while chittering gleefully (she makes this weird chittery noise, like a squirrel or something, when she's hunting, maiming, slaughtering, etc.). Ross (my boycat) and I just stood there, stunned and horrified. I swear, if cats could have "ew" faces, Ross did. Sure woke me up, though.


Yay! MAC changed their minds about the Buffy series V and VI and Angel series II action figures! Part of me is wondering if this was all a marketing ploy, but most of me is just happy that I'll be able to get Wesley and Tara AFs after all.


Am I the only person who reads blurbs about Jake 2.0 (premiers tomorrow, not that I have UPN) and thinks about the nanite labor strike on the Satellite of Love every damn time? Um, probably. The show looks like fun, though, and Christopher Gorham is a cutie. It's not his fault that his show's concept keeps making me think, "Remember us... remember this fight... remember Jody!"


One drawback to the Master and Commander film that I hadn't considered is that it gives reviewers a whole new set of opportunities to diss C.S. Forester, like Polly Shulman did in Sunday's NYT. "O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series is to Forester's Horatio Hornblower books as Crime and Punishment is to a Hardy Boys story or Pride and Prejudice to a Harlequin romance." Uh huh. Well, it's a snappy sentence, but it's overstating the case (and it's just mean. Harlequin romances?). O'Brian is the better prose stylist, but I feel that Forester is the better writer of action scenes, which is a skill not without merit. There are other strengths to his writing that I could think of if my brain were working, but mostly my reaction to the statement was "sort of, not really, shut up." Heh. Not the day for literary analysis, perhaps.


I have a post lurking in the back of my brain about Nero Wolfe and the difficulties of pimping a fandom based on a beloved and classic series of crime fiction (particularly when one of the characters in said series and fandom is Nero Wolfe), since our central archive is back from the dead (at last!) after having fallen victim to a tragic error in accounting, but no way am I coherent enough to write that now. Somebody remind me later.




You're Most Like The Season Autumn ...

You're warm, and the most approachable. You have
that gentle prescence about you. People can
relate to you, and find you easy company.
However it's likely you've been hurt in the
past and it has left you scarred so things can
become rather chilly with you at times. Being
the third Season in, you're mature, trustworthy
and loyal to your friends but prone to
depression and negative thinking.

Well done... You're the shy and sensitive season :)


?? Which Season Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

Well that's an interesting contrast to my usual quiz results. No violence or bossiness at all.

Comments

[amberite.livejournal.com]

I don't know you -- got here via jaynefury.

Anyhow, as to the effects of fever-funky-brain on LJ versus academia, perhaps spamming is a valuable skill in a school environment? I've oft managed to impress various schmuckademic instructors by making each sentence three times the size it ought to be. :-)

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Well, hi there! Drive-bys are always welcome.

And yeah, I think you're right. Maybe it's a natural selection thing- the ones who can vamp effectively, conditions (and health) notwithstanding, are the ones that go on to grad school and glory (and massive debt. And ulcers. And...). Spam as skill-sharpening, hm. I like that. *g*

The fact that I can't resist spamming even when I know I'm doing it (and probably not making a lot of sense, what with the yay, fun delirium and all) definitely springs from one of those traits useful for an academic: the love of one's own voice. That's essential.

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

Am very impressed you can write coherently, even brilliantly, with a 103 degree fever. Also, spam away, m'dear. I for one greatly enjoy your posts, be they insightful essays or random spam.

It really sucks that some people feel that one can't like both O'Brian and Forester. I enjoy O'Brian more, but that doesn't lead to a big urge to bash Forester. Geez. I mean, Harlequin romances? That's not even a reasonable comparison.

::passes the box of tissues::

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

You're great for my self-confidence, truly. I'm just glad to hear that at least one person isn't sitting out there thinking "Argh, shut up!" (I do try to keep the spamming to a minimum- it just doesn't always work). And you're one of the people I was thinking of, who can blather about nothing and still thoroughly entertain me, so that works out well. Not that you do that often, of course. Because you don't. Okay, shutting up now. *g*

It really sucks that some people feel that one can't like both O'Brian and Forester. I enjoy O'Brian more, but that doesn't lead to a big urge to bash Forester.

Exactly. I don't understand the impulse to compliment one by tearing down the other, but I see it all the time. It just seems snobbish to me, and short-sighted. I mean, Forester is one of the founders of the genre (in its modern form, at least). He's not some halfwit. He's not the writer that O'Brian is, I won't quibble with that, but neither is he a hack. He should at least get some credit for the fact that he wasn't afraid to make his hero deeply flawed and occasionally unlikeable, which Harlequin romances certainly don't. Argh, Harlequins? Gah. Not even good (well, better) romances, but Harlequins! Unkind. Very unkind.

::tosses you the Vitamin C::

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

And you're one of the people I was thinking of, who can blather about nothing and still thoroughly entertain me, so that works out well. Not that you do that often, of course. Because you don't. Okay, shutting up now. *g*

Lol! See, that stuff! You're babbling, but it's thoroughly entertaining. Maybe I'm just easily amused :)

I have a lot of respect for Forester, for those very reasons you listed. Any author who's stood the test of time like he has can't be likened to a cheap romance novelist.

Hmm, vitamin C. ::shares her stash of tea and honey::

Hello Autumn!

[kathlaw.livejournal.com]

You do know most of us would love to be as coherent and lyrical with our normal 97.2 degree temp as you are at 103, right? Lovely post.

And cool quiz! Like declineandfall, I came out Winter. Then had to look at the quiz creator's other quizes and took a slew of them. Posted my favorite in my lj: Which of the Greek Gods Are You? I also came up to my regret as an angel on which of the Seven Deadly Vices I was. :-) Too good to live, which I doubt anyone who knows me would agree with. Too irritating, yes.

Me, I'm sick, still, again, forever, endlessly, I swear. Been fighting a low-grade infection for a month or so now, and I'm now on day four of really bad cramps. Since I try to limit the vicodin to 3 per cycle max, and already took them, I spent most of yesterday in bed trying to sleep it off, and when a killing headache got added to the mix anyway, took the inbetween stuff this morning. Not having fun, and must write. And like I said up front, wish I had half your ability and my temp's only about 99.3.

Re: Hello Autumn!

[ealgylden.livejournal.com]

Oh no, you sound terrible! And having to be up and getting things accomplished (and writing coherently, even), pobrecita! I wish there were something I could do. I wonder if chicken soup is overnight deliverable... I don't know where I'd get dry ice though. Hmmm... Does tea help any? I know it probably doesn't do anything, but can it make you any more comfortable?

Those quizzies are so addictive. If I posted all the ones I took, this would be nothing but quizzes, but I can never resist finding out that I'm wine or a waterfall or Scream. Especially when they have nice pictures, like that seasons one. Very pretty indeed.

Re: Hello Autumn!

[kathlaw.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the kind thoughts. I do my favorite Campbell's Chicken Noodle as needed. Tea I tend to avoid as even camomille turns acidic and causes heartburn (weird body chemistry). But I've been making a point of resting when tired (often) and doing that rare thing for me, drinking lots of water. I can tell I'm not feeling well when I like the taste and lack of texture. :-)

finding out that I'm wine or a waterfall or Scream.

I'm Event Horizon on the horror movie quiz. :-) A friend will take me to hell if I'm not careful.

Doing a bit better this evening. It's really the CFS/MCS which means I'm almost never well, just enduring various degrees of sickness. But at least it looks like the cramps that wouldn't end have ended! That helps.