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Jun. 17th, 2013 05:32 pmThis is for http://rarepairfest.livejournal.com/ - signups open until 28th June!
( Probably not very interesting to you if you aren't taking part )
( Probably not very interesting to you if you aren't taking part )Obligatory Post-E2 Empire Froth
May. 28th, 2013 11:33 amI find Empire kind of weird, to be honest.
I'm pretty sure I'm having fun - although probably due to having hoovered up an exciting Imperial position (General of the Red Wind Corsairs). But it's the first LARP in which I've had fun without actually really having a _character_. Yasmina is blatantly just me in a silly dress; if I concentrate I can fetch very slightly divergent thought processes, but we share a lot more of our basic circuitry than most characters I've had fun with in the past.
I think part of that is because I'm so involved in fairly high-powered politics in the game - I keep having to activate all of my problem-solving and organisational abilities, which naturally makes me act a lot more like me than like someone else.
I also feel kind of bad that I've ended up with a lot of my out-of-nation contacts being people I know OC - but I know so many people OC from Maelstrom that I guess it would be difficult for anything else to happen at this stage...
Had some excellent 'remind people orcs are a speaking part' moments monstering the second battle though - particularly the one-on-one in the woods with some guy, where he went to execute me and I told him his people would find no mercy either, and he said "this is my mercy" before smashing my head in :-). Honourable mention to the orc who came up to me with a spear and asked "Can you use this?" after they'd lost an arm; I said "yes I can," we swapped weapons, and I immediately went down to an arrow, with the sorrowful follow-up of "maybe not, then".
Also, bizarre purple digging creatures with a specific hunting pattern, ++ would be hunted through the woods by again...
I would try to go through highlights as I know I always love to be mentioned in them but I am paranoid that someone will go 'but she didn't mention me! she must have not noticed / secretly think I'm rubbish' when it's just that I am totally exhausted and my brain is full!
I'm pretty sure I'm having fun - although probably due to having hoovered up an exciting Imperial position (General of the Red Wind Corsairs). But it's the first LARP in which I've had fun without actually really having a _character_. Yasmina is blatantly just me in a silly dress; if I concentrate I can fetch very slightly divergent thought processes, but we share a lot more of our basic circuitry than most characters I've had fun with in the past.
I think part of that is because I'm so involved in fairly high-powered politics in the game - I keep having to activate all of my problem-solving and organisational abilities, which naturally makes me act a lot more like me than like someone else.
I also feel kind of bad that I've ended up with a lot of my out-of-nation contacts being people I know OC - but I know so many people OC from Maelstrom that I guess it would be difficult for anything else to happen at this stage...
Had some excellent 'remind people orcs are a speaking part' moments monstering the second battle though - particularly the one-on-one in the woods with some guy, where he went to execute me and I told him his people would find no mercy either, and he said "this is my mercy" before smashing my head in :-). Honourable mention to the orc who came up to me with a spear and asked "Can you use this?" after they'd lost an arm; I said "yes I can," we swapped weapons, and I immediately went down to an arrow, with the sorrowful follow-up of "maybe not, then".
Also, bizarre purple digging creatures with a specific hunting pattern, ++ would be hunted through the woods by again...
I would try to go through highlights as I know I always love to be mentioned in them but I am paranoid that someone will go 'but she didn't mention me! she must have not noticed / secretly think I'm rubbish' when it's just that I am totally exhausted and my brain is full!
(no subject)
Jan. 2nd, 2013 11:48 pmI've looked a couple of end-of-year-meme things, but I'm not sure I can actually fill them in.
It seems weird that the Occupy London camp happened over a year ago now.
In 2012 everything changed and nothing changed.
I got 'promoted' to project manager (although everyone still keeps falling over themselves to tell me that project manager is totally a sideways move from technical, not an upwards one).
I did a lot of arguing on the internet about politics, but everything has just steadily got worse to the point where it's depressing to even touch the subject; especially as everyone seems to want to blame the people who are trying to make it better for not succeeding in making it better _enough_.
(I guess at least the US managed to choose the lesser of two evils, but I can understand the position expressed by the World Can't Wait newsletter, when they said that in some ways it's a pity the US is just going to stumble on being awful rather than go over the edge into truly dystopian, at which point people might have mobilised and done something about it.)
The global economy staggered on rather than collapsing. Greece is still in the Euro and still hasn't officially defaulted. Egypt still doesn't have a functioning democratic government but hasn't collapsed into apathy under a new dictator or military rule. Syria is still tearing itself apart.
Maelstrom's over; I've stuck up my battle reports on a webpage; we still haven't got the rest of the data available sensibly; I'm less upset about this than I expected to be. I guess this is why those other games I wanted to know about also had a frustrating lack of final revelations available for public consumption. Maybe I'll get around to it when PD Towers is less impenetrably busy with the Empire release.
I am still not sure if anyone will ask me to be Empire crew or not, but to be honest I've pretty much made my peace with 'not' by now. Maybe I'll change my mind if I'm offered something really awesome to do, but I'm just not sure I want to invest that much energy in a game again.
Especially as I'm not sure whether I will be up to the running around bit of LARP at all. I seem to have developed some kind of exciting jointfail in the last months of 2012, and tomorrow I finally get to phone the secretary that can apparently chase the appointment I should have got some time in the last month about seeing a specialist about it. Meanwhile, moving hurts and I've been trying to do it as little as possible.
And the person whose leaving on maternity meant that I ended up as a project manager is due back Sometime Soon - the latest update looks like 'early March'.
I still have no idea what happens then.
So, that's my life at the moment - for the first time in some years, I'm really not sure what the next year is going to look like.
It seems weird that the Occupy London camp happened over a year ago now.
In 2012 everything changed and nothing changed.
I got 'promoted' to project manager (although everyone still keeps falling over themselves to tell me that project manager is totally a sideways move from technical, not an upwards one).
I did a lot of arguing on the internet about politics, but everything has just steadily got worse to the point where it's depressing to even touch the subject; especially as everyone seems to want to blame the people who are trying to make it better for not succeeding in making it better _enough_.
(I guess at least the US managed to choose the lesser of two evils, but I can understand the position expressed by the World Can't Wait newsletter, when they said that in some ways it's a pity the US is just going to stumble on being awful rather than go over the edge into truly dystopian, at which point people might have mobilised and done something about it.)
The global economy staggered on rather than collapsing. Greece is still in the Euro and still hasn't officially defaulted. Egypt still doesn't have a functioning democratic government but hasn't collapsed into apathy under a new dictator or military rule. Syria is still tearing itself apart.
Maelstrom's over; I've stuck up my battle reports on a webpage; we still haven't got the rest of the data available sensibly; I'm less upset about this than I expected to be. I guess this is why those other games I wanted to know about also had a frustrating lack of final revelations available for public consumption. Maybe I'll get around to it when PD Towers is less impenetrably busy with the Empire release.
I am still not sure if anyone will ask me to be Empire crew or not, but to be honest I've pretty much made my peace with 'not' by now. Maybe I'll change my mind if I'm offered something really awesome to do, but I'm just not sure I want to invest that much energy in a game again.
Especially as I'm not sure whether I will be up to the running around bit of LARP at all. I seem to have developed some kind of exciting jointfail in the last months of 2012, and tomorrow I finally get to phone the secretary that can apparently chase the appointment I should have got some time in the last month about seeing a specialist about it. Meanwhile, moving hurts and I've been trying to do it as little as possible.
And the person whose leaving on maternity meant that I ended up as a project manager is due back Sometime Soon - the latest update looks like 'early March'.
I still have no idea what happens then.
So, that's my life at the moment - for the first time in some years, I'm really not sure what the next year is going to look like.
Obligitory Yuletide Reveal Post
Jan. 2nd, 2013 02:18 pmI wrote, um, quite a few things this Yuletide:
Endless Duty, my actual assignment, which ended up shorter than I would have liked, but I kind of ran out of things to say. It's essentially some fluff based on a quirky little SF / Romance crossover book called Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair, which I don't expect many people have read...
On the Field of Ingarn, my first pinch hit, which is possibly my personal favourite out of the things I wrote this time round. It won't mean much to you unless you've read Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis, on which it is based, and the style of which I tried to copy pretty exactly - but if you have, it goes into some detail on the whole Orual-rides-to-battle thing that CS Lewis basically skipped straight over.
And Stamp On The Pieces, my second pinch hit, which is the first piece of fanfiction I've done actual research (rather than just re-reading canon a lot) for! It's set post-canon in the Millennium Trilogy (the one that starts with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) - I basically took the tiny handful of things we knew about the supposed next book and started writing something based on the location we know is featured.
The Angel Of Compassion is a treat for a Leonard Cohen song (this time it's 'Closing Time'), given that the one I did last year worked well I thought I'd give it another go :-). This one is, uh, slightly weirder and more plotty than the last.
Guest of Honour is a treat modern-language retelling of the deuterocanonical Book of Judith with, uh, a few slightly divergent elements :-).
Tracks; River; Hope is a rather odd little treat that I did for a music video (Bronte by Gotye). It's a bit stylised and possibly disturbing in places, but I couldn't resist writing something after watching the video.
Wind In Her Hair; Blood On Her Claws is blatantly about my one-session Changeling: The Lost LARP character. I'm sorry, okay :-) I couldn't resist after I saw that it fit the prompt pretty much exactly.
Unthinkable is a depressing little Dragonriders of Pern story that appears to have become my runaway success story this Yuletide (well, it got recced a couple of times and got up to two pages of comments before replies, anwyay). Extra bonus trigger warning in additional tags.
And, not written for Yuletide but another holiday exchange, Blasters and Wands:
It's Never Over, about Finnick Odair's life and death in the Hunger Games trilogy.
I also wrote something for the 3 Ships exchange, but reveals on that are later :-).
Endless Duty, my actual assignment, which ended up shorter than I would have liked, but I kind of ran out of things to say. It's essentially some fluff based on a quirky little SF / Romance crossover book called Games of Command by Linnea Sinclair, which I don't expect many people have read...
On the Field of Ingarn, my first pinch hit, which is possibly my personal favourite out of the things I wrote this time round. It won't mean much to you unless you've read Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis, on which it is based, and the style of which I tried to copy pretty exactly - but if you have, it goes into some detail on the whole Orual-rides-to-battle thing that CS Lewis basically skipped straight over.
And Stamp On The Pieces, my second pinch hit, which is the first piece of fanfiction I've done actual research (rather than just re-reading canon a lot) for! It's set post-canon in the Millennium Trilogy (the one that starts with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) - I basically took the tiny handful of things we knew about the supposed next book and started writing something based on the location we know is featured.
The Angel Of Compassion is a treat for a Leonard Cohen song (this time it's 'Closing Time'), given that the one I did last year worked well I thought I'd give it another go :-). This one is, uh, slightly weirder and more plotty than the last.
Guest of Honour is a treat modern-language retelling of the deuterocanonical Book of Judith with, uh, a few slightly divergent elements :-).
Tracks; River; Hope is a rather odd little treat that I did for a music video (Bronte by Gotye). It's a bit stylised and possibly disturbing in places, but I couldn't resist writing something after watching the video.
Wind In Her Hair; Blood On Her Claws is blatantly about my one-session Changeling: The Lost LARP character. I'm sorry, okay :-) I couldn't resist after I saw that it fit the prompt pretty much exactly.
Unthinkable is a depressing little Dragonriders of Pern story that appears to have become my runaway success story this Yuletide (well, it got recced a couple of times and got up to two pages of comments before replies, anwyay). Extra bonus trigger warning in additional tags.
And, not written for Yuletide but another holiday exchange, Blasters and Wands:
It's Never Over, about Finnick Odair's life and death in the Hunger Games trilogy.
I also wrote something for the 3 Ships exchange, but reveals on that are later :-).
Have you read Snow Crash? Do you like Y.T.?
If so, you should read this:
http://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2012/works/601718
I am incoherent with squee about how excellent a coda this is to a book which really finished rather abruptly - and somehow my mystery writer also managed to add a trip around abandoned stations in an underground transit system, which is one of my favourite things :-).
If so, you should read this:
http://archiveofourown.org/collections/yuletide2012/works/601718
I am incoherent with squee about how excellent a coda this is to a book which really finished rather abruptly - and somehow my mystery writer also managed to add a trip around abandoned stations in an underground transit system, which is one of my favourite things :-).
(no subject)
Nov. 2nd, 2012 12:08 amI might have accidentally slipped and attempted NaNoWriMo. If you want to watch my pathetic attempts, I'm posting over at http://storyness.livejournal.com/ :-)
(no subject)
Jun. 13th, 2012 06:30 pmToday I read in a LARP post-action report that they did some scenes in a chapel, which the writer pointed out was 'not real-life consecrated'.
This caused some cognitive dissonance, because I realise I've never really got the whole 'consecrating space' thing (in the real world). My upbringing contained churches meeting in pubs and school halls (as well as the more conventional variety), and in most cases the ones that met in the pubs and the school halls seemed at least just as, if not more, 'real' and attended by the real presence of God as the ones that I suppose must have been in 'consecrated' spaces. I've always been pretty attached to the whole 'where two or three gather' thing, with a pretty big dose of 'always with you' to go with it.
I'm especially not sure why it would be particularly Not Okay to play pretend in a consecrated space as opposed to a non-consecrated space usually used for approximately the same things...
I can understand the decor and the history making a place feel / be particularly 'holy', but I've never really given much thought to the 'mechanics' of consecrating places. I'm not even really sure what that _means_, in physical terms, for - say - a standard Anglican parish church; what do they _do_ that makes it 'consecrated'? I mean, I imagine like basically everything else it is the intent that is the most important part? But I just don't know :).
This caused some cognitive dissonance, because I realise I've never really got the whole 'consecrating space' thing (in the real world). My upbringing contained churches meeting in pubs and school halls (as well as the more conventional variety), and in most cases the ones that met in the pubs and the school halls seemed at least just as, if not more, 'real' and attended by the real presence of God as the ones that I suppose must have been in 'consecrated' spaces. I've always been pretty attached to the whole 'where two or three gather' thing, with a pretty big dose of 'always with you' to go with it.
I'm especially not sure why it would be particularly Not Okay to play pretend in a consecrated space as opposed to a non-consecrated space usually used for approximately the same things...
I can understand the decor and the history making a place feel / be particularly 'holy', but I've never really given much thought to the 'mechanics' of consecrating places. I'm not even really sure what that _means_, in physical terms, for - say - a standard Anglican parish church; what do they _do_ that makes it 'consecrated'? I mean, I imagine like basically everything else it is the intent that is the most important part? But I just don't know :).
(no subject)
Mar. 8th, 2012 11:09 pmMore questions, this time from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dbsurfeit. If you want your own seven questions I am still gradually handing them out when inspiration strikes...
( Read more... )
So, for those playing along at home - what do you think I'm most picky about?
dbsurfeit. If you want your own seven questions I am still gradually handing them out when inspiration strikes...( Read more... )So, for those playing along at home - what do you think I'm most picky about?
(no subject)
Mar. 6th, 2012 11:31 pmThis is the old Five Questions meme, but with inflation - now with seven questions! Comment below if you want some questions from me. This set of questions are courtesy of sesquepadalia:
( and my ramblings inevitably get long answering them )
sesquepadalia:( and my ramblings inevitably get long answering them )Actually got to church this morning for once, to discover that they're running a new-years 'basics' series, which started with one of those 'historical proof that Jesus rose from the dead' sermons. If you haven't heard one, the first page of Google results for 'historical resurrection' provides plenty; I could go into it if anyone was interested, but I'm not a historian and I'm sure other people have put it a lot better than me.
I was thinking, on the way home, of reasons why people hear what seems superficially like very compelling historical evidence (on the level with or better than most historical 'facts' they would cheerfully accept) but quite reasonably go away not believing a word of it - mostly as an exercise in 'how can these kind of sermons be improved', but also as an interesting question of what actually motivates human beings and makes them believe one thing or another.
So, in no particular order, some reasons I came up with - and if you have any further information or are generally thinking 'but that's not why _I_ don't believe it', please comment and tell me where I am full of shit :).
Note that I don't believe most of these statements; I do believe in the physical Resurrection, but not really because of the 'historical evidence'. This is what I think other people are thinking - if I'm wrong, which I quite likely am, please tell me!
( 1) The supposedly compelling historical evidence isn't actually very compelling if you look at it closely. )( 2) I don't accept the 'historical' standard of evidence for things that I might actually have to care about if they were true. )( 3) I don't actually care whether Jesus was resurrected historically or not. Unexplained stuff happens all the time. It doesn't affect my life or mean the rest of Christianity is true. )( 4) I don't actually care if it is true - I live in my own truth / I would have to change too much / it's just not relevant to me. )( Conclusion / Coda: Why _do_ people believe what they believe, then? )
I was thinking, on the way home, of reasons why people hear what seems superficially like very compelling historical evidence (on the level with or better than most historical 'facts' they would cheerfully accept) but quite reasonably go away not believing a word of it - mostly as an exercise in 'how can these kind of sermons be improved', but also as an interesting question of what actually motivates human beings and makes them believe one thing or another.
So, in no particular order, some reasons I came up with - and if you have any further information or are generally thinking 'but that's not why _I_ don't believe it', please comment and tell me where I am full of shit :).
Note that I don't believe most of these statements; I do believe in the physical Resurrection, but not really because of the 'historical evidence'. This is what I think other people are thinking - if I'm wrong, which I quite likely am, please tell me!
( 1) The supposedly compelling historical evidence isn't actually very compelling if you look at it closely. )( 2) I don't accept the 'historical' standard of evidence for things that I might actually have to care about if they were true. )( 3) I don't actually care whether Jesus was resurrected historically or not. Unexplained stuff happens all the time. It doesn't affect my life or mean the rest of Christianity is true. )( 4) I don't actually care if it is true - I live in my own truth / I would have to change too much / it's just not relevant to me. )( Conclusion / Coda: Why _do_ people believe what they believe, then? )Inspired by the latest #obscenitytrial craziness, here are some under-informed thoughts on the different trade-off positions you can consistantly take on personal liberty. I notice that they line up quite well with the major UK political parties (at least in principle; the practice is much murkier, of cousre), so it's possible my views have been shaped by the political landscape in which I find myself.
There's the 'state-socialist' approach, typified by Labour. The state promises to keep you safe and healthy, but dictates how you should live your life, for your own good. This keeps down the amount the state has to spend on keeping you safe and healthy, because you are mandated to undertake preventative measures and avoid risks. At its extreme, this approach involves state-mandated exercise routines and a complete ban on any sex without condoms outside a carefully monitored breeding program.
There's the 'libertarian' approach, typified by the Conservatives (economically, anyway - social conservatism holds them back in this regard) and the Liberal wing of the Liberal Democrats. The state doesn't necessarily promise to keep you safe and healthy, but in return it doesn't place any restrictions on your behaviour; you can have as much risky sex or extreme sports or couch potato behaviour as you like, but you are also at liberty to die of starvation or preventable diseases if you can't pay for the consequences.
Then there's the 'universal welfare' approach, typified by the Social wing of the Liberal Democrats and the Green party. The state promises to keep you safe and healthy, and keeps out of dictating the terms of your life as far as it possibly can. However, it does require that you hand over a large percentage of your productivity to pay for the continued safety and health of all those people undertaking risky behaviours, even if you are personally very responsible in your life choices. Obviously you can see how this can be very unfair in practice!
Personally I support the 'universal welfare' approach, but I can see why it would require extremely careful management and education to avoid it completely wiping out productivity (why should I work at anything when all my money / reward for the work is just going to go to people who didn't bother?).
There's the 'state-socialist' approach, typified by Labour. The state promises to keep you safe and healthy, but dictates how you should live your life, for your own good. This keeps down the amount the state has to spend on keeping you safe and healthy, because you are mandated to undertake preventative measures and avoid risks. At its extreme, this approach involves state-mandated exercise routines and a complete ban on any sex without condoms outside a carefully monitored breeding program.
There's the 'libertarian' approach, typified by the Conservatives (economically, anyway - social conservatism holds them back in this regard) and the Liberal wing of the Liberal Democrats. The state doesn't necessarily promise to keep you safe and healthy, but in return it doesn't place any restrictions on your behaviour; you can have as much risky sex or extreme sports or couch potato behaviour as you like, but you are also at liberty to die of starvation or preventable diseases if you can't pay for the consequences.
Then there's the 'universal welfare' approach, typified by the Social wing of the Liberal Democrats and the Green party. The state promises to keep you safe and healthy, and keeps out of dictating the terms of your life as far as it possibly can. However, it does require that you hand over a large percentage of your productivity to pay for the continued safety and health of all those people undertaking risky behaviours, even if you are personally very responsible in your life choices. Obviously you can see how this can be very unfair in practice!
Personally I support the 'universal welfare' approach, but I can see why it would require extremely careful management and education to avoid it completely wiping out productivity (why should I work at anything when all my money / reward for the work is just going to go to people who didn't bother?).
I wrote some things!
Jan. 1st, 2012 07:04 pmThis is the bit where I shamelessly self-promote the fic I wrote for Yuletide this year, or something.
If you like The Culture (as in, the Iain M Banks novels) you might want to check out my actual assignment, Faster, which caused one commenter to accuse me of being Banks trolling Yuletide by writing a story for it!
The other two stories I wrote are:
Snow White and Red Riding Hood, attempting to win the Most Unoriginal Title Award with an urban retelling of Red Riding Hood mashed together with Snow White and Rose Red (a completely different tale to the standard Snow White!). It additionally showcases my completely ignorance of inner-city areas and may also contain henious failure at portraying a non-white character...
Dance Until Sunset is practically original fiction, as its 'fandom' is the song Suzanne by Leonard Cohen. Particularly observant types might noticed that I totally ripped off elements of a holiday I had in Paris once and grafted them onto the side of that interview with Suzanne that's floating around the interwebs.
I actually think all three are quite good, but I suspect if you read my writing you'll have gone to read them anyway and if you don't then I'm not going to convince you with decent advertising blurb ;).
If you like The Culture (as in, the Iain M Banks novels) you might want to check out my actual assignment, Faster, which caused one commenter to accuse me of being Banks trolling Yuletide by writing a story for it!
The other two stories I wrote are:
Snow White and Red Riding Hood, attempting to win the Most Unoriginal Title Award with an urban retelling of Red Riding Hood mashed together with Snow White and Rose Red (a completely different tale to the standard Snow White!). It additionally showcases my completely ignorance of inner-city areas and may also contain henious failure at portraying a non-white character...
Dance Until Sunset is practically original fiction, as its 'fandom' is the song Suzanne by Leonard Cohen. Particularly observant types might noticed that I totally ripped off elements of a holiday I had in Paris once and grafted them onto the side of that interview with Suzanne that's floating around the interwebs.
I actually think all three are quite good, but I suspect if you read my writing you'll have gone to read them anyway and if you don't then I'm not going to convince you with decent advertising blurb ;).
but mostly it's two in the first morning of 2012, and everything has been moving too fast for me to catch my breath for the last three months, and I don't really know what to say
my life is pretty much perfect, on paper, and I quite liked the future, too
but there's still part of me that is convinced we'll all be living in mud huts by the end of the year, and if I am still alive it will only be on the sufferance of people who ought to know better...
I feel like I should be doing more, but I'm so tired of being the voice in the desert and I am acutely aware that I'm not particularly qualified for this shit and I'm not always right.
my life is pretty much perfect, on paper, and I quite liked the future, too
but there's still part of me that is convinced we'll all be living in mud huts by the end of the year, and if I am still alive it will only be on the sufferance of people who ought to know better...
I feel like I should be doing more, but I'm so tired of being the voice in the desert and I am acutely aware that I'm not particularly qualified for this shit and I'm not always right.
