Green Eggs and Codfisch

saviour siblings?

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:49:07 GMT

So what is it with saviour siblings? I knew what they were, mainly from My Sister's Keeper which my sister (of course) kept pushing upon me to read, but I didn't know there was an official term for it, or that people actually DID have children whose primary purpose on Earth is to provide bodily materials for a sick relative. In my opinion this is completely inhumane. A person should be born for themselves, not to be used. From one side, refusing to let your body be used like that--forfeiting activities which would be harmful not because they are worried about your own safety, but the safety of your sibling should YOU not be available for them, and allowing them to take tissues and bone marrow and organs and anything else--seems selfish, like you don't care enough about your sibling to be their "saviour". But it's much more selfish of them to expect you to give yourself up, give your body up, for them.

It's horribly cruel for me to say this, but if someone is going to die, if they have a diease that you cannot escape from, don't. If you have leukemia or cancer and there is no hope for you to live except by taking body parts from someone else for the rest of your life, then why are you trying so hard? You can't hold onto a life you've already lost.

26 Xena Icons

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:38:19 GMT

13 Xena
2 Gabrielle
2 Aphrodite
2 Ephiny
3 Xena/Gabrielle
4 Lucy Lawless

Fake cut to my icon journal.

(I could probably just get up there behind you...)

(in which I praise/insult movies)

Sun, 17 May 2009 00:47:58 GMT

I.. may be totally in love with Kirk/McCoy. Which is sad, because I have this preconceived notion that I must be a Kirk/Spock shipper, or die, and also that the first time I watched Star Trek, the movie, I absolutely did not see Kirk/Bones whatsoever. Did not compute. And now that I've observed the material in a second go, I realized: Kirk and Bones were made for each other. Just like Kirk and Spock, yes, but in a much easier way.

[edit, much later: I've now seen the movie for a third time, and this time I pretty much just saw an entire Enterprise-bridge orgy, complete with Chekov, Sulu, Pike, and Uhura. Because I am that sex-obsessed sometimes]

Anyway, I'm somewhat too tired (it's three) to say anything else of value besides: if you were planning on going to see Angels and Demons, don't.

I won't say anything too spoilery right now, only this: they could have made something good, dammit, something which reflected positively on the Church, which, by the way, isn't *my* church, so I don't have any bias on that matter, except I don't like religion being mindlessly bashed and that's what Angels and Demons did. They could have ended on a positive, hopeful-for-the-future note that the Catholic Church had changed its ways, that there was going to be a bright future where religion and science could go hand-in-hand.... and they opted for the much more comfortable path of making the Church out to be manipulative, corrupt, self-serving, and backwards. And I. Hate. That. I may not sympathize with Christianity (owing mostly to the fact that I would be going to hell for any number of reasons), but the way they degraded everything about the Church and the people who run it was spiteful. And sickening.

sheep hearts taste like chemicals!

Wed, 13 May 2009 12:39:26 GMT

So today my friend licked a sheep's heart.

Which he had previously been dissecting. Not a cooked heart. A dead heart.

It was... a unique experience to watch, and while he claims it didn't taste like anything except chemicals, as you can imagine he was rather ill afterward. Luckily, I've got it on video so I can watch it whenever I want!

If I could only find my connector cord..... D:

Star Trek

Sat, 09 May 2009 19:09:54 GMT

Well, I went and saw the new Star Trek movie today with my sister. I think I'll write a longer review later, but I just wanted to say right now: it was brilliant. It was extremely visually stunning and quite unlike Voyager or the other series. Lots of action, lots of attractive characters (apparently that was a major source of grief for "real" Trekkies, but I think I've obsessed over Star Trek enough to call myself a real fan, and I thought this movie did the franchise justice, even if it did appeal to non-sci fi fans as well). I loved characters like Scotty and the Russian pilot (so cute!).

And... yes. That's that.

[through translation]
Waiter: What would you like to drink?
Me: I would like apple juice..... apple juice.

This was after my sister and I had a minor tiff regarding "Apfelsaft gespritzt", which is sort of like mineral water mixed with apple juice. It's vile, but she loves it, and I nearly ordered it by mistake.

today in the history of the world

Sat, 09 May 2009 07:36:04 GMT

I am pleased to announce that May 9 is the day that the Vienna stock market crashed in 1874, which started the Long Depression worldwide (not to be confused with the Great Depression). Today is also the day that the Romans used to have a festival to exorcise ghosts of the dead from people's homes. According to Wikipedia, you must walk barefoot and throw black beans over your shoulder at night. Tricky business, exorcism.

There are two more performances to Die Lustige Witze--one on Tuesday and one on Sunday the 31st. I'll probably go on the 31st, because I'm seeing/hoping to see La Boheme on Monday. It's crazy: this month I'm planning on seeing eight different shows, ranging from famous operas (Lucia di Lammermoor) to Japanese puppet shows. And May is always the craziest, busiest, worst month, besides November.

what the HELL?

Fri, 08 May 2009 18:06:27 GMT

I don't believe it!

Public transport in Vienna is, as a general rule, absolutely brilliant. Except for when it isn't.

They had construction on part of the tracks, right, but I didn't know that, so I sat at the end station (home) and waited for twenty minutes before the tram arrived. Then we stop and change drivers...... twice. Then suddenly we go onto a different route. When I finally got to the right stop, I was seven minutes late and they apologized but wouldn't let me in.

D: I am so positively morose right now, I might melt.

oh, good!

Fri, 08 May 2009 14:56:07 GMT

He came! Early! Now I may go!

This is all very exciting, mind you, seeing as I wasn't able to go see La Traviata at the Staatsoper [the State's Opera, I suppose], which is much more sophisticated than the Volksoper [the People's Opera], where I'm going tonight. Still, I love the Volksoper, and I pass it every day on the tram, so it's much more in my heart than the Staatsoper, which is in the center of the city.

In conclusion from that tangent, I wasn't able to see La Traviata on Tuesday because I had to wait at home to open the door for the electricians! And now I was afraid it was going to happen again. I should conspire to be at home less often, because it seems my primary purpose is to open doors for people.

bugger

Fri, 08 May 2009 13:44:20 GMT

Now I may not be able to go to see Die Lustige Witze because I will be the only one home, and someone may need to open the door for the electricians who may or may not come at some point this afternoon.

I am reading Wuthering Heights, which may become one of my favourite novels if I still like it so much when I am finished. I don't suppose I can truly have that permanent an opinion after only reading 30 pages out of 400. But I have a good feeling about it, and I love characters like Heathcliff.

After this, I need to make a list of good novels with Byronic heroes. I've already read A Hero of Our Time (Pechorin, but I thoroughly disliked him, and not only because he was a sloppy copy of Pushkin's superior Eugene Onegin) and Crime and Punishment (I would argue Raskolnikov was at least a partial Byronic hero). I suppose Snape partially fits the role, too, in his JK Rowling incarnation, and I hear Jane Eyre has a Byronic hero. Does anyone have other suggestions?

EDIT: first entry cross-posted from DW!

Tag 20

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:17:32 GMT

Was There a Time
Dylan Thomas

Was there a time when dancers with their fiddles
In children's circuses could stay their troubles?
There was a time they could cry over books,
But time has sent its maggot on their track.
Under the arc of the sky they are unsafe.
What's never known is safest in this life.
Under the skysigns they who have no arms
have cleanest hands, and, as the heartless ghost
Alone's unhurt, so the blind man sees best.

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 19:25:36 GMT

Apologies; my several-day absence was due to the discovery that if I so desired Internet access in my hotel, I would be required to pay 15 pounds for it. In Austria, it seems they just don't make you pay for things, and I've come to take them for granted--things like an included breakfast and free Internet. In light of this I decided that it wasn't worth it; I valiantly braved an Internet-less world for a few days.

It wasn't so hard!

Mainly though, I won't update poems for each of those "lost" days. That would be cheating...

Tag 13

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 17:23:46 GMT

The Lake Isle of Innisfree
William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear the water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:21:57 GMT

Oh, my god.

I have an older women fetish!

Well, not that Kate Mulgrew is old, just that she is old-er and more mature than the typical celebrity crush: Keira Knightley, Angelina Jolie, Romy Schneider. And yet I find her totally beautiful and sensual.

Wow. This is almost as shocking as finding out that I had a cowboy fetish. o_O

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 22:15:17 GMT

Tomorrow I am going to Bratislava, to fly to Dublin, because it seems there are no direct flights from Vienna to Dublin, but there are from Bratislava. Then I'm to stay in Dublin for two days before going to Edinburgh. We'll take a day in St Andrew's, which is the real gem of the trip for me. I've never been in Scotland, and I haven't been in Ireland for nearly seven years.

We'll see.

On a brighter note, I repotted a plant today! It was fun! I have high hopes of becoming a gardener.

Forgetting

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:25:49 GMT

I think sometimes about nepenthe. How it could be to forget everything that has come before, the past no longer ruling and deciding our future. I don't remember where I heard it, but the sentiment is clear: "If you have one foot in yesterday and the other in tomorrow, you'll piss on today". I've never forgotten that adage.

I'm not feeling good anymore, which could have been deduced without me saying anything by looking at my poetry choices for the past couple days. I'm sure it's just stress and a little self-hate; things can only improve from here. Each day goes by quickly. I've found that if I focus on finding The Perfect Poem for the day, time goes quicker. Each day will accumulate. Already six days of April are gone, just like that. Soon, May. Finally June. The summer has never felt like such an escape for me before. :| I just want to sleep and forget things.

Tag 6

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:17:43 GMT

The World Is Too Much With Us
William Wordsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Tag 5

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 19:46:05 GMT

From Work Without Hope
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair --
The bees are stirring -- birds are on the wing --
And Winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!
And I the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.

Tag 2

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:03:16 GMT

Head Against White
Margaret Atwood

iii

Those times we have rumours of, arctic or alpine
when the wind and snow have stopped
at last and their rescue teams
with their tools and joyous motors

are out chasing the survivors
back from their cold refuge, hermitage
of ice to the land of sharp
colours and enforced life

Surely this is the first sign they find:
this face, rigid and fierce
with renunciation, floating up through
the softening white rock
like a carved long-buried god,

revealed word

Tag 1

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:14:00 GMT

Song of a Second April
Edna St. Vincent Millay

April this year, not otherwise
Than April of a year ago,
Is full of whispers, full of sighs,
Of dazzling mud and dingy snow;
Hepaticas that pleased you so
Are here again, and butterflies.

There lies a hammering all day,
And shingles lie about the doors;
In orchards near and far away
The grey wood-pecker taps and bores;
The men are merry at their chores,
And children earnest at their play.

The larger streams run still and deep,
Noisy and swift the small brooks run
Among the mullein stalks the sheep
Go up the hillside in the sun,
Pensively,—only you are gone,
You that alone I cared to keep.

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:43:05 GMT

Regarding books:

People always say they're in Book Heaven... although if there WAS a book afterlife, I'd rather be in Book Hell, where all the naughty books go.

I mean, wouldn't you?

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:34:58 GMT

I am not very good at this whole updating business. :|

I received 7 books in the mail today, which makes today Extra Special. Three are on ancient Greek history; one is on the plays of Aristophanes; three are on philosophy. They're for a summer course I'm taking in England this summer. They are certainly going to distract me from the work I'm supposed to be doing now.

Meanwhile, my Hindi-learning efforts are coming along well. I should start a countdown. I'll be in Nepal sometime in the last two weeks of June... and I must be fluent in reading and writing Devanagari script by then. I'd never forgive myself if I went there and couldn't read at least the basic letters. And it's not a difficult alphabet, no matter what people think.

नामासे. Namaste. Hello. And, goodbye.

Skiing: Turning vs not turning

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:07:36 GMT

Today I was told not to ski directly DOWN hill, but to turn. When I proved that I could indeed turn, I was told to bend my knees whilst turning. When I did THAT, I was told my turns weren't tight enough.

Here is what I got out of today: if it is possible to go straight downhill without smashing into something/someone at the bottom, I will do that. Speed is a joyous thing.

Besides, turning is for losers. Just like real women drink from the bottle, real skiers plummet like dying birds straight down a hill, none of that turning or slowing down bullshit. Am I right?

Innsbruck

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:37:24 GMT

.... is pretty ugly, all things considering. It's got an absolutely beautiful location, right nestled all heart-like in the middle of mountains, and everything is white and snowy... but Innsbruck itself failed. All the buildings are apartment buildings, it seems, and they aren't beautiful old Viennese apartment buildings, either; they are blocky. All of them. I'm not exaggerating.

Luckily for my limited taste in Germanic architecture, we only drove through Innsbruck--loaded our car onto a train in Vienna at about 6:30 in the bleeding morning and then sat tight for 4.5 hours until we reached that lovely alpine city, unloaded car, and took off again for even snowier mountains. Now we are in a little town which is ALL ski resort, no town.

Another point to finish it off: SEVERUS SNAPE WORKING AT A SKI RESORT. Oh god. I will write that. When we went in to drop our skis and boots off at this massive ski storage area (you get a pass to hang around your neck which says your numbers, so you can keep your skis by the slope all week without carrying them around), the first thing I saw was a young man who looks exactly like Severus Snape, down to the bumpy overlarge nose and the long, rather lank black hair, and the SCOWL, handing people their ski boots. It was perfect.

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:30:37 GMT

I have a sick, horrible desire to lock away all my old posts. What is it about humans which makes them so resistant to reading their own [old] work? I'm always worried that something I write which I am proud of, will become in a year something I look back at, sigh at and then say, "Well, it's sort of okay". But nothing brilliant. Nothing I write seems to survive the test of time.

[that's a good book title... The Test of Time]

English Class

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:20:57 GMT

"What does blah blah blah mean? It sounds like whale blubber rolling down a hill!"

and then

[interrogating the Norwegian student] "Do you hunt whales? That's what it is, Norwegian food escaping."

another

Teacher: "Is that a moose on your shirt? Or whale blubber?"
Student: "It's Spanish."
Teacher: "Ooh, Spanish! Excellento!"

I, me, and myself are bewildered.