General update + recently read books
Oct. 10th, 2012 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzula1) I got my dSSS assignment, and right, okay, I can do that. I have a story idea I've been thinking about for a while, and it fits the request well enough. Now I better stop talking about that before I reveal what I'm going to write. *g*
2) Decided not to do Podbang. Which feels like a relief--now I can focus on other projects instead.
3) My teaching is going well, and my voice is holding up so far. It's pretty different to teach high-school-level math, and even though my students are technically university students, they're a lot more like high-school students.
4) I started doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu, on the theory that maybe if I work out enough, my back will get better. Ow, ow, ow. At least when all of my body hurts, I don't feel my back hurting? It's fun, though--I've always liked wrestling techniques best among the martial arts. I did judo for a couple of years in my teens, and then I did Kali, a Philippine martial art, for a while more recently. Kali has stickfighting and knife fighting as a focus, and I did miss the wrestling when I did that. Unfortunately Brazilian jiu-jitsu seems to be pretty male-dominated--there's only me and one other woman in the beginner's group, which makes it harder to find people in my weight class. But it's still fun, and I hope I can keep it up. It's funny how utterly non-sexual it can be to have a guy's legs around your neck and your face in his crotch. It's all in the context...
5) Recently read books:
The Wall, by Marlen Haushofer (originally in German; I read it in Swedish)
A quiet, domestic post-apocalyptic book from 1963. It's about a woman who's caught behind an inexplicable invisible wall that kills everything outside it. She spends years living a subsistence life in a hunting cabin, with a cow, a dog and a cat. By the end, I really cared about what happened, and the bit that gripped me the most is probably the human-animal relationships.
In Great Waters, by Kit Whitfield
In fanfic terms, I suppose you could describe this as a 16-17th century English royal family RPF AU with merpeople. I thought it was pretty good, and the worldbuilding was cool, but I think I enjoy books more when I feel emotionally closer to the characters? Both the protagonists in this are pragmatic, emotionally distant people, or at least they feel that way to me. Of course, there are reasons they are that way, but I wanted to care more than I did.
A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf
Okay, I actually listened to this rather than read it, but I just want to express my delight that Virginia Woolf wanted to write femslash fic for Shakespeare plays. *g*
2) Decided not to do Podbang. Which feels like a relief--now I can focus on other projects instead.
3) My teaching is going well, and my voice is holding up so far. It's pretty different to teach high-school-level math, and even though my students are technically university students, they're a lot more like high-school students.
4) I started doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu, on the theory that maybe if I work out enough, my back will get better. Ow, ow, ow. At least when all of my body hurts, I don't feel my back hurting? It's fun, though--I've always liked wrestling techniques best among the martial arts. I did judo for a couple of years in my teens, and then I did Kali, a Philippine martial art, for a while more recently. Kali has stickfighting and knife fighting as a focus, and I did miss the wrestling when I did that. Unfortunately Brazilian jiu-jitsu seems to be pretty male-dominated--there's only me and one other woman in the beginner's group, which makes it harder to find people in my weight class. But it's still fun, and I hope I can keep it up. It's funny how utterly non-sexual it can be to have a guy's legs around your neck and your face in his crotch. It's all in the context...
5) Recently read books:
The Wall, by Marlen Haushofer (originally in German; I read it in Swedish)
A quiet, domestic post-apocalyptic book from 1963. It's about a woman who's caught behind an inexplicable invisible wall that kills everything outside it. She spends years living a subsistence life in a hunting cabin, with a cow, a dog and a cat. By the end, I really cared about what happened, and the bit that gripped me the most is probably the human-animal relationships.
In Great Waters, by Kit Whitfield
In fanfic terms, I suppose you could describe this as a 16-17th century English royal family RPF AU with merpeople. I thought it was pretty good, and the worldbuilding was cool, but I think I enjoy books more when I feel emotionally closer to the characters? Both the protagonists in this are pragmatic, emotionally distant people, or at least they feel that way to me. Of course, there are reasons they are that way, but I wanted to care more than I did.
A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf
Okay, I actually listened to this rather than read it, but I just want to express my delight that Virginia Woolf wanted to write femslash fic for Shakespeare plays. *g*
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-10 03:36 pm (UTC)2) You're a total rock star. I still can't believe you did a fic and podfic for the same big bang. (Both are DL'd now, and in my queue, yay!)
3) Glad to hear it's going well. =)
4) That sounds like fun!
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-10 05:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-10 05:59 pm (UTC)More people should do book reviews like this. In fact, more books should have a clear fanfic-like header on the front page, with warnings and some clear basic ideas of what one finds inside.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-10 08:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-10 11:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-11 08:01 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-11 10:20 pm (UTC)3.) I´m glad to hear your voice is holding up.
4.) Sounds like a good stress reliever and a lot of fun.
5.) Concerning "The Wall": It was made into a film with one of the best German actresses ever, Martina Gedeck, and just premiered (http://www.diewand-derfilm.at/).
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-12 09:57 am (UTC)4) OMG, I so want to see that! Do I have good timing in my reading or what? *g* I'm kind of interested in how they made a movie of it, though--since so much of the book is quiet and domestic (like, taking in the hay and weeding the potatoes and taking walks with the dog), I'm worried that there's going to be extra drama introduced that will change the story.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-12 08:13 pm (UTC)I will definitively try to see it in the cinema when I´m back home.