Miscellany

[raven]

I have tried not to post this. In vain have I struggled. It will not do. The couple next door have the LOUDEST SEX EVER, OH MY GOD.



...thank you, I feel a lot better for getting that off my chest. Truthfully, I don't mind; the guy who lives across from me is a nice chap and I'm glad he has a lovely girlfriend, and she's apparently visiting from somewhere far away, so who can blame them, really. I'm just kind of glad she's not here all the time. Nice chap as he is, I don't need that particular conversation in my life.

(Oh, god, I don't think they know I'm here. Maybe I should go and make coffee really loudly. Or hoover my room.)

I blame the snow. I wish I could've stayed in bed all day, too! But, no, alas, for some reason I decided the thing to do was to be productive on, oh, no sleep at all, and as there weren't any buses (and I don't dare cycle - I keep watching people cycle over black ice with no helmets, and wondering just how charmed their lives are), I walked the three miles out to the careers service and then back again. It was a productive meeting, but everything is icy and gritless and cold, and it's amazing how much worse everything is on no sleep. It's fairy-tale pretty at the moment, falling very softly on the landscape, but, argh, I need to get over that landscape and go to classes occasionally.

In news entirely unrelated to this, I am currently agonising over whether or not to sign up for purimgifts. On the one hand, it sounds like fun, and just the sort of thing I need right now: yuletide got me to do a little writing at the end of last year, and in these trying times of excessive work, ficathons and gift exchanges are about the only way to get me to write anything. And it's hardly very onerous, in any case - three ficlets, none of which can be over a thousand words (and can be as short as three hundred) - and three graphics, which would give me the excuse to spend a happy evening on campus playing in Photoshop.

But. The theme is to write about women, or characters who are Jewish, or characters who have been persecuted by evil viziers. I have to admit, I don't think I know any fandoms with evil viziers. I could write about three women, but that doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the thing, somehow, and I'm wary of writing in other people's religious and cultural traditions. I mean, I am not Jewish. (I don't think this is a surprise to anyone.) I could research Judaism very thoroughly, but it's a gift exchange and I might still manage to get fail all over someone's holiday gift. Which would be bad, especially when it was supposed to be a present.

(Ditto eid_fic, even though I probably know more about Islam than Judaism. And there doesn't seem to be a Hindu equivalent. Is there a Hindu equivalent, all-knowing internets?)

Ack, I don't know. I really wish I could go back to bed and watch a lot of Deep Space Nine, but a) I don't actually have my DS9 DVDs and b) WORK, oh god. Theoretically I have an exam tomorrow. Snow makes all sorts of things theoretical.

Comments

[hips-lips-tits.livejournal.com]

this is strange but i totally had a dream that i met you. at disneyworld, of all places.

i don't know where it came from, i don't even try to make sense of the places my brain goes. but, for what it's worth, we had a good time! ..


yeah, i know.

[bekkypk.livejournal.com]

As far as intro lines to LJ posts go, thats gotta be one of the best :D
You could get an ASBO on them? XD
xx

[manynames.livejournal.com]

Aladdin? You're right, there seems to be a distinct lack of fandoms with an evil vizier.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

What about ficlets about Samantha Mulder? I reckon you could manage that without too much deep theological research. And that gets you two out of three!

(Disclaimer: I have been considering doing this myself)

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

I am also debating purimgifts (have been for several years now each time it rolls around).

I'd say writing a story about kick-ass women would be very much in the spirit of it all.

(and, if you are worried about the Jewish thing and you choose to play, I am willing to, um, Jew-beta it for you (bearing in mind that my experience/knowledge/opinions are of one Jew and not all the Jews in the world))

As to a Hindu equivalent I....feel like I saw some noise about some fandom something around the last Diwali but I couldn't point you to it assuming I'm not imagining it.

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

(And also: don't you think CSM could count as an evil vizier?)

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

I'm almost certainly gonna sign up for purimgifts.

(and hey, as a resident yid, I think you are absolutely within reason to write three fics about non-Jewish women. People are signing up to recieve what the challenge offers which is Jewish OR female, no guarentee of either or both. Also, I would say it should be 100% fine to write a story about a Jewish character without writing necesarily about their Jewishness - think about the way Willow or Ivanova are treated by canon, for example. Just getting a story where the focus is a jewish character might be as refreshing and interesting for someone as a fic where the focus is religious or cultural.)

[anotherusedpage.livejournal.com]

(and, if you are worried about the Jewish thing and you choose to play, I am willing to, um, Jew-beta it for you (bearing in mind that my experience/knowledge/opinions are of one Jew and not all the Jews in the world))

Also, this.

[hathy-col.livejournal.com]

Other people are making dep insightful comments, but instead I have decided to focus on the following line:

the guy who lives across from me

OH MY DEAR GOD you don't even share a wall with this guy and you can still hear him at it?! I'm not sure if I am appalled for you or secretly cheering him on.

[foreverdirt.livejournal.com]

And on the off-chance you write about a character who is a fail!Jew, I am perfectly happy to check it and say things like, "You know, I don't think she'd know when Passover falls, actually. Or what to do with a dreidel. And perhaps she could eat some bacon in this scene, but feel obscurely guilty about it?"

(I am so excited for Purim Gifts, and can tell you that I, personally, would be thrilled to get gifts from you, whatever the content.)

[subservient-son.livejournal.com]

As a man of the Jewsish persuasion, I personally object to fic which injects Jewish characters into settings where it doesn't fit. E.g. I started reading a Star Trek story starring Captain Davod Gold, and he was fasting for Yom Kippur - it just felt wrong, all humans in Star Trek are agnostic humanists and that the way I like it! :P

Seriously, though, you could always write West Wing fic with Josh and Toby, plus CJ/Ainsley/Mandy/Dr. Bartlet/Joey Lucas/other female characters of win.

Also, I will happilly beta as well (though my knowledge is quite embarassingly low).

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

But you are an agnostic humanist and you fast for Yom Kippur? :P

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

Toby doing Purim with his babies-with-hats? :D

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

OMG I KNOW. THE WHOLE CORRIDOR RATTLES. SRSLY.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

brb, turning into squishy puddle.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that is sensible and reassuring. And thank you for your offer to beta, also, it is v. much appreciated.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*laughs* You are so great. And I think perhaps I may sign up, yes. I'm being persuaded.

[subservient-son.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm an agnostic JEWISH Humanist, whereas I got the impression this character was a believer. I don't really object to cultural Judaism in the 24th Century, it's just with the canon deliberately avoiding characters being explicitly Christian/Hindu/Muslim/Shintoist/Buddhist/Sikh/Zoroastrain/Rastafarian/Taoist/Confucian/Bahá'í/Jain/anything else from Earth, it just seems to be missing the point to have a Jewish character.

But then again, if I was making a new series, I'd have a Muslim character in an oh-so-subtle commentary on the present.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

Though, actually - and I think this ties in with stuff on slasheuse's post - it only just occured to me that one reason I love ST and much space opera is that it is so secular. It's close to my only fandom that doesn't have interruptions every year for the characters to celebrate Christmas, Easter, etc, and it seems appropriative for me to say I feel more welcome because of that because I do make secularised observances around the big British-Christian festivals, but I think it's neat that they aren't really relevant there.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thanks, honey, I appreciate it. I'm wary, you know, because obv it's no one's responsibility but mine to educate me, and you're very kind.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

A profound lack, one feels.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Ahaha! You win, on both counts. I was just uploading my Samantha Mulder story to AO3 yesterday, actually. I should have thought of that!

[apestaartje.livejournal.com]

sabrina_il who is on my Friendslist is one of the mods at purimgifts.

Did you ever see Pushing daisies? Half of the characters on that are Jewish. You could write Pushing daisies fic.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*laughs* They seem to be having so much fun! I don't have the heart.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

:P That sounds like much more fun than waking life, right now.