half of what i say is meaningless

Three memes snagged from daybreak777 :

( books )

( movies )

And lastly, a fic meme!

If you had to delete all but five of your stories, which five would you keep and why? (Or ten if you prolific)

The Breath Between: I worked frakking hard on this one.  For a long frakking time.  It's my longest completed bsg fic to date, and I'm quite proud of it, so yeah, I'd keep it! 

Portraits: My ode to Kara Thrace.  I feel like this piece says more than the majority of my other fics.  And it's got mythology!  I could never throw this one away, not when it's all about how awesome my girl is.

The Disappearing Ground: Well.  Yeah.  This one isn't perfect (none of them are, obviously, but there's one huge glaring flaw in this one that I long to fix every time I reread it).  Still, I wrote it because I really needed to, and I'm very attached to it.  The last two lines might be the best thing I've ever written.

Say Anything At All: Five times Kara said something she didn't mean to say (but not necessarily something she didn't mean).  This is just my big ol' gen Kara fic that's actually a bit shippy, but you know.  From childhood to 4.5.  It was a lot of fun to write, and yeah, I'm proud of it.

Five Times Kara Told Someone She Missed Them: Like Portraits, I think of this story as trying to say something, which might be a bit surprising given the brevity and the format.  Five short scenes that illustrate Kara's evolution over the years through the way she relates to others.

Continuing with the "30 Days of Awesome Women" list that I began yesterday, here are 11-20.  You can read the first part here.

Fandoms include: Doctor Who, The Simpsons, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Alien, His Dark Materials, The Hunger Games, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Poisonwood Bible, Howl's Moving Castle, Discworld, Pushing Daisies, Arrested Development, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dexter, Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Farscape, Lost, Angel, and Bionic Woman.

( 26 awesome women )

Alright folks, I'll see you tomorrow with the third and final part!

This is for stripes13  pretty much, since I don't think anyone else cares about my crack crossover thing that I will probably never actually write.  That's okay!  I just like to talk about things.  Anyway, today I want to talk about The Amber Spyglass.  I had a very strange and not altogether good day for many reasons, but one of those reasons was that I read the end of The Amber Spyglass just before going to class where I knew I would be expected to speak articulately about it (yes, I have a class about His Dark Materials--it's about Paradise Lost and Philip Pullman and other "visions and revisions of the Fall" which is perfect for me because I love Paradise Lost and His Dark Materials).  Anyway, er, got a bit off track there.  So as some of you may recall, I once wrote a post about how The Amber Spyglass makes me cry.  This morning I was actually holding it together pretty well and I thought I might make it through--but alas, I soon found myself hunched over my kitchen table, sobbing and wiping away tears with a napkin.  And hoping that none of my housemates came in because I didn't want to explain why I was crying.  Also I had to pull myself together before I got to class.  

But anyway, the point of this is that I just read the end of His Dark Materials and Book III has a perfect record for making me cry only this time I was applying it to Lee and Kara too.  And I'm about to reproduce the relevant section below, so ( spoilers for the end of His Dark Materials, obviously )

Bonus: here's something I wrote in my class notes today.  It amuses me, and perhaps it will amuse you too.  Lyra vs. Will and doing what they're told--if Lyra trusts you, she'll do anything for you, jump a raider back to Caprica or assassinate her CO, but Will will (ha) only ever follow himself.  Or Lyra.  No one else.  He'll mutiny at inappropriate times but he'll always have her back.  (okay, I didn't write that last sentence but I was totally thinking it)

( Spoilers )

Gosh, what am I going to read now?  I was reading The Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England before, but was not totally digging it.  It was interesting, and entertaining, but the main character was a total ass.  I really only read one or two chapters though, so perhaps I should give him a second chance.  Of course, I could always read any of the dozen books I'm supposed to be reading for my classes.  Or I could work on the story draft that I'm supposed to have by Friday (oh deadlines--how I love and loathe thee).  

I'm in kind of a weird mood.  Hmmm.  I think I'll watch some 3rd Rock From the Sun.  And then maybe read some HG fic.  Or maybe not.  I might need some space.  Not sure yet.

Day 10. A show you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

Surprisingly enough, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Yes, I judged the show by its quite silly name.  All I knew about it was that the heroine was named Buffy and that my dad watched it sometimes.  We mocked him for it on occasion.  Then one fateful day my sister stayed home sick from school, and started channel surfing.  She was looking for Xena, but stumbled upon Buffy instead.  That night, she said I absolutely had to watch this show, that it was amazing and I would love it.  I finally agreed, but mostly just to shut her up.  And the rest is history.

Day 11. A show that disappointed you

Uh, hello.  Battlestar Galactica.  Oh Battlestar, my Battlestar, you had such promise!  Such amazing characters!  And then season three had to happen.  And season four.  So yes, you disappointed me.  I still love you though.  Even if you have an overblown opinion of yourself, and even if you sort of dissolved into nonsensical storylines.  You didn't have a plan, and neither did the Cylons (except, you know, to blow up the Colonies, which they managed quite well in, like, the first hour, leaving one to wonder what else they needed a plan for)

Well, this is a bit of a downer post.  Sorry.  But hey, I want to talk about some books!  Two books, specifically.  The Demon's Lexicon and its sequel, The Demon's Covenant, by Sarah Rees Brennan (LJ's own sarahtales ).

( how I love them, let me count the ways )

I love books.  I'm an English major, which really wouldn't be possible if I didn't have a great love of literature.  I saw this meme about reading and couldn't help myself!

This meme is long, but who doesn't want to read all about books?  Also for all of the questions where they asked for a favorite, as in singular, I usually put at least two.  Oops.  Snagged from taragel  and queenofthorns .

( Wow, this is 5 PAGES in my Word document )

Sidenote: Ursula K. LeGuin has the absolute best name for any author, let alone an author of spec fiction.  And it’s her real name!  Incredible.

Things that are good:
-finishing my history paper
-my sandwich
-returning the ginormous stack of library books that has been taking up space in my room
-my sandwich (it's very good)

Things that are bad:
-my history paper
-the stupid things I did while stressing over the history paper
-the library being mean and not having the books i need for my NEXT research paper
-my sudden inability to write decent dialogue

Anyway, blah blah blah, in the midst of the Great History Paper Panic o' April, I of course went online and saw this meme.  Snagged from bastardsnow

What we have here is the top 106 books (why 106?) most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.


Not tagging anybody.  Participate if you so desire.