cryptolect

To cereta.  I know things have been pretty tough, I hope this day marks the turn towards better times ahead.  Or if not, at least that it brings more small joys and pleasures amidst the darkness.

Both elderly laptops on the fritz so posting is limited, I have to jump in when there's a window, like Sliders.

Just a couple of quick links for today:

Jo Brand speaking at the Mumsnet bloggers conference (disclosure - I haven't quite finished listening yet, and early on there's an extremely brief reference to a serious surgical procedure, in case that's somehting you don't need in your life today). 

If you haven't played The Room, and you like puzzle games, I can recommend it.  Not free, but made by a small independent company and worth supporting I think.  It's absolutely beautiful, incredibly intuitive to use, and the puzzles are just the right level of difficulty, to my mind.  And there's about to be a sequel out.

Was so busy this week I haven't even watched Haven yet!  Going to sit in bed and do that now.

I came across this Tumblr post by Cardinal Bitchface on the subject of sex between men in Renaissance Florence and a few things struck me about it:

1) "Rape of men was not uncommon during this time. Bernardino of Siena preached that women should keep their sons locked in their homes, and only let their daughters out into the town."  Not so much just because the sons were kept home, but that at the same time, the daughters were allowed out.  That's a strange world to imagine, I'm not sure whether it ever came to pass or just stuck at the preaching stage.

2)  "A survey conducted during the Renaissance in both Siena and Florence found that 24% of men aged 18 and up who had sex with other men were also married, compared to 51% in Florence".  Again, I'm exposing my terrible ignorance and lack of imagination here I am sure, but while I know people throughout history have counted and measured all sorts of things it hadn't really occurred to me that people were doing what you might call social science surveys at this time.  It makes me wonder if the Phoenicians, the early Ottomans, the ancient Chinese etc. were all doing it as well?

3) I can't help having a quick moan that if this were a blog there might be more interesting discussions in the comments rather than just endless reblogs (although I guess to some extent those represent the people who would read a blog post and not comment).  But there's no use fighting Tumblr and at least this has lots of lovely references in it.

They are going to film The Silver Chair!  My absolute favourite Narnia book!  I mean I'm quite happy with the book, I have never craved seeing it on screen or anything but if they were going to do one more.... *Runs to bookshelf*

Big Dog: *stamps his feet*
Me: Want your ears scratched?
BD: nope
Me: Want to play ball?
BD: nope
Me; Need to go out?
BD: nope
Me: Well sort yourself out then, I'm reading.
BD: *stamps his feet for TWENTY MINUTES*
Me: What in the everloving mike do you want?!
BD: it's bed time
Me: It's ten to nine.
BD: yes, that's my bed time.  i've decided
Me: Well put yourself to bed then.
BD: no, i need you to come too or it's not the same
Me: You will be insensible within seconds of hitting the rack.  You don't need me.
BD: i can't completely ignore you if you're NOT IN THE ROOM
Me: Yes, your logic there, it is impeccable.  *headdesk*

Lots of half-formed posts floating in my head none of which will actually coalesce so just some random bobbins instead:

Neighbours are listening to a remix of 'Somebody I used to know' with a bounding hairy bass beat which is working quite well for me but then they are singing Queen songs over the top which produces rather an odd effect.

I've been invited to a thing by a couple of kids half my age, and on the one hand they clearly want me to come but on the other hand it's all their friends that I don't know and I'm a bit nervous about standing out as a random Old.

Reccing 'Unsounded' a web comic about a small girl with a tail and her mysterious bodyguard on a dangerous journey in a magical land.  The art is beautiful and it's funny and engaging, I get the feeling the artist has been building this world in her head for a long time, and it shows, and I got hooked very quickly.  Some sex, some violence and gore, some distressing concepts, death.  It's a WIP but there's a lot to catch up on and she updates regularly.

Storm text me a pic of herself that she'd taken right then and there, from a distant part of the world, and I for real exclaimed out loud 'It's like magic!'  I don't know why this seemed amazing,  I guess just because it's far.  And I remember writing letters home from that same place.  I suppose this is always how it goes.  You just accept the new thing, fit it into a big or a small space in your life, budge stuff over to make room.  But every now and again you get to see it fresh.  The Mars Rover tweets me and yes yes and then sudddenly something changes and  it hits, it's real, that little piece of machinery in such an impossibly distant lonely place.  That little whoosh when the plane lifts clear of the ground and you're flying.  It's fun, to be mind-blown by the magic, for a moment.

Spent the day in the British Museum.  As a result ancient Assyrian wall friezes and portal sculptures and obelisks are my new jam.  Growing up we were in and out of there the whole time, but always all we really wanted to see were the Egyptian mummy rooms.  I take this expansion of interest as a sign of maturity.  The friezes etc. don't really photograph well (here's a gate spirit though) but they are so beautiful and detailed.  And although the subject matter tends to the religious/patriarchal and /or violent and gory, the skill of the sculptors is just incredible, especially in the fabrics and the animals.  It's funny as well, you can really see that generations of art students have been through the museum looking for inspiration - you notice all these little design motifs they lifted which have cropped up in recent decades.

Speaking of history, I have a word for the gritty TV makers - if you want a historical dynasty as subject matter for a sexy, gory show that doesn't require everyone to say of it, "well you know, women's sphere of influence was restricted, they had to exert power in indirect and apparently passive ways and that's not sexism, that's just how it was, you know, historically"* check out these women:

Anna of Russia, madder than Mad Lord Snapcase, who made two of her male courtiers 'marry' each other (I believe they were both already married to other people) and live as chickens in a basket outside her door.

Elizabeth of Russia, who led a bloodless coup and vowed never to execute a single person during her reign and who never did.

And of course, Elizabeth's niece by marriage Catherine the Great and her porny furniture and all the rest.  Between them they ruled from 1730 - 1796 (with a couple of very brief breaks for some fellas to get a look in) The stories of these women are just extraordinary, each and every one, and there are so many oddball relatives and major historical happenings to throw into the mix.

In addition to the 30 days of posting challenge, I'm trying to also comment on somebody's post every day as well.  Because if we're all just talking at each other that's not so good.  It's the interaction which is the glue which will...keep this juggernaut...on the road.  Or something.  And like feedback it's easy to think about doing it and nearly do it and then not.

And now there's new Haven, hurrah!  Although, ungrateful as I am, I'm already slightly mourning the early innocent days before the story arc really took off, when it was more just...concepts to play with.  Although I like the arc! I do!

*ETA: There are other reasons why people don't need to say this, of course.

Two posts today since I missed yesterday.

Sometimes when people write fic that I love but which has little bits in I don't like, or spelling mistakes etc. I copy the text and edit it till I like it better.  Then I read that version instead.

I edit compulsively and the longest so far I was still editing something after I posted it on a site was 2 years and 18 months.  I posted something not long ago and there's one sentence where I can't decide if a word belongs at the beginning or end of the sentence and I've just switched it again for the fifth time.

But everyone does that, right?