And whispering in their ears, we give them unquiet dreams

Regrettably, I have turned into a giant Tokyo-eating mucus-producing monster. I have a cold. Also regrettably, this transformation has occurred during the Era of Weddings. If I come to your wedding sniffling, I’m not lamenting your choice of soulmates, I’m just in need of a Kleenex!

Colds make me decidedly cranky, sleep-deprived, unwitty, and thus unfit to blog, but I’ve found some hilarity and fascination on the web that you must see.

Glory comes from the other side of silence.

Going to the dentist is such an odd combination of flattering and mortifying. On the one hand, I brush a lot (er, fanatically, some might say), and I still wear my retainers like a little goody two-shoes, so the dentist is usually quite complimentary. But no matter how OCD my flossing, they also still manage to dredge up some little uncomfortable flaw. Apparently, while I have beautiful teeth, I also grind my teeth in my sleep like a rock-gnawing giant (my analogy, not the dentist’s). But you know how much those teeth night-guard things cost? 400 bucks! I think I’ll just try to zen my out of this bad habit and let my enamel take care of itself, thank you very much anyway. It must be a new one; Sarah never complained of my granite-chewing when we were roommates.

Time-Lapse of Icelandic Volcano. This is so exquisite, it almost hurts. I am in love with the bleak beauty of Iceland. You can almost feel the cold wind in some of those shots.
Music video done by the same guy. Mesmerizing.
Have you ever heard the main theme from Exodus? If not, here’s your chance. That was my favorite piece of instrumental music when I was younger, and I don’t even know where I heard it. I’ve never seen Exodus.
“Crayola Doesn’t Make a Color for Your Eyes”, discovered by Sarah.
Who you gonna call? Improv Everywhere continues its tradition of being fabulous.
The Empire Strikes Back: Premake.
I realize this cements me as an incredible nerd, but if you’re any kind of Star Trek: The Next Generation fan at all, I think you should check out Reunion with the Rikers, which is pretty adorable. “My Imzadi.” “My Zimbabwe.”
Quite possibly the stupidest thing I have ever seen human beings do, and that’s saying something.
I’m not a very good person for posting this, and not a very sophisticated one either.

Hmm. Those links grew distinctly less high-brow the longer I went.

The Archer’s Tale turned out to be good, and I enjoyed learning more about the time period. The Hundred Years’ War is an area in which my historical knowledge is somewhat spotty. I had forgotten, though, how *bad* Cornwell is at writing female characters. Does the man not have sisters? A wife? A female cousin? Anyone? Conveniently, his books deal with mostly male characters (and I don’t really mind that, in this context), so you don’t notice for a long time, until you run smack into some rather cardboard, exceedingly boring, flagrantly unrealistic girl. You and I should sit down and have a chat, Bernard. Girls really aren’t that complicated to write; they’re just like writing people! Anyway, I make fun of him, but Cornwell is still pretty great.

After that I read Galactic Pot-Healer by Phillip K. Dick, which did not win points for its title, but which was pretty cool nonetheless. I will say, though, that I’m more of a fan of Phillip’s short stories than I am his novels. He seems to have trouble staying coherent and keeping consistent pacing in a novel, or at least in this one. I’ll have to give a few more a go.

THEN. I read Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay. *cue groaning as all 3 of her blog readers brace for yet another eyelash-fluttering gush over Kay* Seriously, you guys! Read this man’s books! I wolfed the first 300 pages of this book down so fast that I got sad over having to leave the world so soon once I finished it, so I purposely didn’t let myself finish it until the next day. If anyone else at all, in the entire world, wrote this storyline, I wouldn’t have liked it. I loved Ysabel. And now I won’t say anything more about it, have no fear.

I had a shockingly productive day, which makes me feel pretty darn good! But also pretty darn tired. *yawns*

There’s a dream in this place.

I didn’t update last week because I was off camping in the wilds of Eno River Park! It was glorious, if rather sticky, and we saw a multitude of copperheads and water moccasins, which kept things from getting boring. At all. Fortunately, no one needed to be airlifted to the nearest emergency room, so I call that a good trip.

The first time I heard the name Ulan Bator, I thought it must be the most magical place in the world. In fact, I thought it must’ve been from a fantasy book. However, it is actually the capital of Mongolia. Is it weird to travel to a place about which you know nothing solely because of its name? …Of course not.