“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” — Dorothy Parker

Another insanely busy week!  Apparently that’s just the new normal around here.  Waking up to a flooded apartment on Tuesday was less normal–our neighbor’s hot water heater leaked into our apartment and flooded the kitchen and part of the living room–but we seem to have that situation rectified by means of a shop vac and giant fans.  Lucky did not enjoy any part of that.  We weren’t hugely thrilled either, but I like mold a whole lot less.

In somewhat related news, this spring/summer will be the first one in five years during which I won’t be moving!  Our rent only went up slightly, so we can actually afford to stay put for once.  I’m ridiculously excited about that…and I’m wondering if maybe it’s time for a new bookshelf to celebrate not hauling books up and down stairs.  I hate when my shelves get so full that I start having to lay books horizontally on top of vertical books, and we’re definitely there right now.

I really can’t complain about being busy when it’s for such good reasons: this week was full of absolutely fantastic times with friends, including a visit to the Langdon farm, one to Rooglewood, and one to a new friend’s house for dinner and a movie. (Do yourself a favor and just don’t ever watch Starship Troopers.  I’m serious.  It was heinous, and the only enjoyment to gain from it is to tear it apart with like-minded individuals.)  All the same, trying to get my work done in between these social engagements has led to considerable sleep deprivation.  I made my bed after church, took a long look at said bed…and crawled back in until 1:00.  It’s a rainy, lazy day, and I’ve mainly slept, drunk tea, and talked with friends online.  Can’t beat that for a Saturday.

Literature:

• A book that opens six different ways to reveal six different books.
• Suggested collective nouns for book-lovers.
• “Screw writing ‘strong’ women.  Write interesting women.  Write well-rounded women.  Write complicated women.  Write a woman who kicks ass, write a woman who cowers in a corner.  Write a woman who’s desperate for a husband.  Write a woman who doesn’t need a man.  …don’t focus on writing characters who are strong.  Write characters who are people.”

Heart-warming:

• Possibly the most adorable thing ever–also an impressive display of toddler upper body strength.
• Mr. Rogers says goodbye.
• Heroic elderly dog sacrifices himself to save his family.
• Magic for dogs.  (Russian dogs have the best names.)

Fascinating:

• The Amazon women: is there any truth behind the myth?
• Crows’ reasoning ability rivals that of seven-year-old humans’.
• Hauntingly beautiful ghost towns.
• Deliciously creepy scifi scenario.
• The Overprotected Kid.  Long (I admit I skimmed), but interesting article. “When my daughter was about 10, my husband suddenly realized that in her whole life, she had probably not spent more than 10 minutes unsupervised by an adult. Not 10 minutes in 10 years.”
• The innovation of loneliness.
• An imaginary town becomes real and then not.

Know this:

• Trekkiedating.com.  It’s a real thing.
• Reasons to wish you were a Yooper.
• I can’t believe we really need to be told this, but…don’t pee in the pool.
• This is a generic brand video.
• Ford comes up with a suitable commercial reply to the obnoxious, materialistic GM ad for the Cadillac.

Music:

• Ya Nass album by Yasmine Hamdan.
• Billy Joel and Jimmy Fallon sing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”

 Books: I’ve been reading A Passage to India by E.M. Forster for what feels like my entire life.  I blithely packed a slew of books for my Richmond trip, thinking that I would have downtime to read, and then I didn’t even have a chance to crack a book open once during the whole week.  What I’ve managed to read of Passage so far (which isn’t even half of it) has been intriguing.  The book is a good look at India and British Imperialism during the 1920s, and I’m enjoying the perspective on Indian culture, so different from our own.  I’ll attempt to come up with something more intelligent to say about the book after finishing it, if I ever manage to do so.

“Adventures do occur, but not punctually.”

In Five Glass Slippers news, the anthology blog for all five of us contest winners has launched!  Bless Rachel for actually getting the ball rolling, because I was prepared to procrastinate for another month or so.  Be sure to read up on the fascinating inspiration for her protagonist!  I hope to write up a post of my own about A Cinder’s Tale…uh…soonish.  Don’t hold your breath.

I’ve been delinquent in pretty much everything this week that didn’t directly pertain to my day job, since I was horrendously busy in Richmond for the conference.  There wasn’t even time to explore any historic Civil War graveyards.  *grumbles*  I did, however, have dinner at Penny Lane Pub, which was a fascinating and delicious experience.  Folks at a table near mine were talking about the Narnia books, and I was sorely tempted to pull up a chair and crash the conversation.  Instead, my coworker and I voyaged down the tremendously sketchy (by night, at least) Canal Walk, wandered around some historic buildings including the capitol, and found ourselves in Shockoe Bottom, which is intriguingly named, tragically historied, and home to a really nice coffee shop now.

Geekery:

• At long last, Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf will be published!!!  I’ve been waiting to read this ever since I heard he translated the work.
• Man gets revenge on scammer by texting him the entire works of Shakespeare.
• In defense of the impractical English major.  I do on occasion write press releases for pharmaceutical companies, I’m not going to lie–but the rest of the points are very valid.
• Are gender-specific books excluding readers?  The Independent thinks so.
• A hilarious commercial created back in the day for syndication of Star Trek: TNG.  I commend whomever came up with this.
• Hysterical spoof of Call the Midwife.

Fascinating:

• Mindblowing facts to destroy your understanding of time.
• Madagascaran Tenrecs and their unique communication method.  I’m 97% sure I’ve posted this before, but it’s worth a repeat.
• Daring cameraman in the Ukraine climbs ridiculous things, may be my new favorite person.  Please oh please let’s do this, folks.
• Rare footage of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan from 1930.

Music:

• “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.
• Acapella cover of Bastille’s “Pompeii.”
• “Travelers Song” by Future of Forestry.

“Happiness consists in getting enough sleep. Just that, nothing more.”–Starship Troopers, Heinlein

This will be short, since it’s been an impossibly long week…but it was made significantly better by the arrival of my check for A Cinder’s Tale!  I don’t think the thrill of getting paid to write fiction will ever get old.  I made stuff up…and people paid me for it.  COOL.  Speaking of A Cinder’s Tale, Anne Elisabeth Stengl talks more about it and the other stories to be included in the Five Glass Slippers anthology.  Check it out!

Next week I’ll be in Richmond for work all week.  The downside: the Edgar Allan Poe museum is closed whenever I’m not on the clock.  The upside: I’ll be going with lovely people and will no doubt manage to have adventures in spite of the tremendously long work days.

Intriguing:

• 80 reasons Leonard Nimoy is fascinating.  As if we needed a list.
• The honey hunters of Nepal.

Good to know:

• Remember that speed-reading app I talked about last week?  Never mind.
• 35 things you should never say to a book lover.  “That book you lent me? Hmm. I can’t remember where I put it. The last thing I remember was highlighting my favorite parts in pink.”  *gnashes teeth*
• How to break out of zip ties.

Music:

• “Like Real People Do” by Hozier.
• Parents sing along to Frozen while young daughter ignores their antics so hard.
• This infant’s music skills are better than yours (and way better than mine).

Books: A friend loaned me Starship Troopers by Heinlein because I complained that the only Heinlein I had read (Stranger in a Strange Land) was…well, heinous, and not really scifi at all.  I TAKE IT ALL BACK.  (Well, most of it.  I may like Heinlein now, but Stranger in a Strange Land is still heinous.)  I love Starship Troopers, and I’m just about finished with it.  I want to sit down and write a paper about its military philosophy comparing it to various historical ideals, but I’ll probably settle for hunting down some more of his work and just pretending Stranger never happened.

“In the sun born over and over, I ran my heedless ways…”

In an effort to “market myself” and use “social media” and do other ridiculous things with quotation marks around them, I created an author page on Facebook and…*cringes*…a Twitter.  I feel slightly ashamed, since I’ve essentially done nothing but mock Twitter since its creation, but I have to admit…I can see the appeal now.  Except for the character limit, that’s annoying as all get-out.  My wit cannot be constrained to 140 characters!  A couple honest-to-goodness strangers have followed me, which is quite thrilling, and I’m up to about 100 Facebook likes.  In my book, that’s an incredible amount of fame.  I’m done, I can go home now.

Last weekend was supposed to be quiet, but due to my car leaking coolant and a crazy baby shower, it was fairly eventful.  StopLeak seems to have remedied the car issue for the moment, and I survived the liquid marijuana (the name for gummi bear-flavored vodka, apparently? You learn something new every day.), so overall things could’ve been worse.

It’s safe to say this weekend will be cooler, though, since I’m going to a Casablanca-themed party and watching Thor 2 at the dollar theater.  And editing.  Always editing.  I finished my story revisions at last, however, and the dang-blasted things have been sent on, so I refuse to think about that for a little while, no matter how the plot bunnies proliferate.  Figures, I get more ideas for the story AFTER I’ve finished it than I did while writing it.

Fascinating:

• For those watching with bated breath: the Great Lakes are now 91% covered in ice.
• If the Moon were only one pixel: a tediously accurate scale model of the solar system.  And yes.  I scrolled through the whole thing.
• I found myself on a horrifying and fascinating Wikipedia rabbit trail on the Collyer brothers.
• “The Geometry of Circles,” a clip from the glory days of Sesame Street, featuring the music of Phillip Glass.  I remember seeing this as a kid and being entranced.

Hilarity:

• An oldie but a goodie: the concrete buffer gone wild.
• New level of friendship to which to aspire.
• If humans crossed the roads like animals.

Literature:

• An app to make you read faster?  After trying it on the article page, I admit it was nice not having to move my eyes, but it still feels choppier to me than my own reading.  I read around 600 wpm if I’m in a hurry, and if I’m not, I want to be able to vary my speed:  reread lines, savor good ones, skip over bad ones.
• “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” read by famous Welsh thespians.  Including Ioan Gruffudd. : )
• Crash course on Oedipus Rex, beautifully delivered by John Green.

Critters:

• Snake fights, kills, and eats an alligator.
• Otter fights, kills, and eats an alligator.  No word on what happened if/when the otter and the snake met.
• The murmurations of starlings.
• When two dogs attempt to share an ice cream cone.
• Dogs and cats losing the battle against human furniture.

Music:

• “Turn It Around” by Lucius.
• “Song for You” by Jenny and Tyler.
• “Amsterdam” by Gregory Alan Isakov.
• “Birds on the Wires” by Jarbas Agnelli.

Books: I finally finished Shadow Hand by Anne Elisabeth Stengl, and my sluggish pace certainly was NOT due to the book content; I just didn’t have time to clap my eyes on the page very often.  I loved that this installment of the Tales from Goldstone Wood drew heavily from the darker myths, particularly from the Irish myth of Crom Cruach (which corresponds quite well with Cren Cru in the novel).  If you thought Irish mythology was only full of twinkly, craggy-faced old men and friendly leprachauns, you are very wrong: Crom Cruach is one of the most terrifying stories out there, in my opinion, and I suppose it’s fitting, then, that this book was by far the creepiest of Stengl’s novels to date, at least to me.  There were quite a few other touches of mythology I enjoyed, and it was wonderful (as always) to come back to characters from previous books and learn what happened to them.  At the same time, I was slow to warm up to the main characters, and while I did enjoy the book immensely, I have to admit Starflower is still my favorite of the series…so far.