Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in The Lauderdale's LiveJournal:

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Sunday, December 20th, 2009
4:03 pm	More Orc-brat. I'm at the library. It's closed and empty and the world is snow outside. But tomorrow is my last day of work before I leave for ten days of glorious winter vacation, so I wanted to come in and get some work accomplished without any interruptions: finish up the new web site, check the status on computer updates, wrap things up with the collection development journals and the weeding cart. We'll see what I can get done in the next five hours before I have to catch the train home. I want to make a good report to my director tomorrow. In the meantime, I finished up another chapter of Orc-brat. There's a definite level of yick, but probably no worse than folks have encountered to this point. Maevyn will never grow up to be a doctor, that's all. (Comment on this)
10:23 am	Jesus and Hagrid have gone insane. I have loved this song forever, or at least since it was used in that car ad a few years ago. Then last night I saw the above description among the comments and I've been tittering ever since. (Comment on this)
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
10:09 pm	My wastrel life I don't often read girl-falls-into-Middle-earth stories. Wolverine-falls-into-Middle-earth stories are evidently another matter. Let me start again. I don't read much fanfiction, period. Not as much as I used to. But I have been trying to make a point of reading more because, let's face it, fanfic is fun. Anyway, SOMEHOW I managed to get into this very lengthy story called It's an Odd Coincidence by an author named Telcontar Rulz. I had some reservations about the first few chapters. (The humor of Logan opening his mouth only to baffle everybody with the use of slang or otherwise non-Middle-earth terminology every bloody time began to thud after a while. It's still there, but at least the others have learned to ignore him for the most part.) But at this point I am hopelessly hooked. My dim hope is that Sabretooth will also show up at some point in the company of bad-ass Orcs but even if that does not to happen - I suspect it won't - this story is a lot of fun. For those X-Men fans on my f-list, I cannot promise that Logan/Wolverine is IC because, honestly, I am not as well-versed in the franchise as a true fan would be. For what it's worth, my understanding is that Telcontar Rulz' Logan is meant to be more movie-verse, in a period shortly after he has lost a lot of memories - conveniently, as she said, for her and for the purposes of her story. And beyond that, I can't say much more beyond, This Is Ridiculous and Too F*ck*ng Funny. For a dose of what I'm talking about, here's a bit from Chapter 13. Legolas and Logan are lost, after doing violent battle with Orcs, and Logan is trying to sniff his way home. "Why don’t you try and remember which way we came from if you’re so impatient?” “I was not paying any attention to the direction we were running in yesterday,” said Legolas. “If you can recall, we were being pursued by at least a hundred orcs which wanted to make a meal of us. You might not think much of them, being almost indestructible, but I find them rather distracting. If the smell of the orcs is everywhere and fresh air is no help, then what scent trail are you looking for?” “Our scent trail,” replied Logan. “I have to say, it’s rather hard to find since I can smell us very clearly. And smoke, of course. I think —I hope— the others have lit a fire, and that someone is smoking a pipe.” “That is a foul habit,” said the elf, shaking his head. “Geez, as if being lost in a maze with no food and very little water is not enough, I’m stuck with a health nut!” said Logan. “I am not a nut,” said Legolas. He had a distinct feeling that he was being insulted, but he could not, for the life of him, see how the word ‘nut’ could be insulting in any way. “Slang, pal; slang,” said Logan. He smirked. This was fun. It wasn’t often that he saw an utterly confused elf. They were always so regal and stoic. Hardly anything could unnerve them. They had probably seen almost everything there was to see in their many thousands of years of life. Only, in all their years, they had never met the Wolverine. If only he had a camera of some sort to capture the way Legolas was looking now. “So what does ‘nut’ mean in your language?” demanded Legolas. “It can mean the edible thing that’s crunchy,” said Logan. “Which is exactly what it means here,” said Legolas. “Or it can mean someone who’s completely off their rocker...” “And what is that supposed to mean?” “Uh...a madman, basically.” “You called me a madman?” “Actually, I called you someone who was mad about health because you don’t like smoking.” “There is nothing ‘mad’ about not liking the smell of smoke. It is foul.” “And it can also mean...maybe you don’t want to hear this because this was not what I meant when I called you a nut...” “What does it mean, Logan?” “I’m pretty sure you don’t wanna know.” “I am quite certain that I do.” “All right, you asked for it, so don’t blame me if you think it’s rude or something.” “Logan, please answer my question.” “Uh—why am I stuttering like a bloody teenager?—testicle.” There was a moment of silence. “You call a testicle by the same name as you would call a dry fruit in a shell,” said Legolas flatly. “And you call me mad?” “It’s just the way it is!” said Logan. “There’s nothing weird about it. I mean, it’s like...it’s just slang, okay?” “They are not even related! One is meat, and the other is plant material!” The elf shook his head. “I am not going to view nuts in the same way again after this.” “Makes you feel queasy, doesn’t it?” said Logan. He did enjoy saying vulgar things at times, especially when it had an effect on people. “No, not at all,” said Legolas. “It is not uncommon to find a dish composed entirely of testicles. In fact, some might even consider them to be a delicacy.” It was the elf’s turn to grin. “I do not become queasy, Master Logan.” “Really?” said Logan. Now that was unexpected, although it made complete sense to him. People wasted so much food just because they thought that some parts of an animal were not edible, when in fact, all parts were edible. He’d lived in the wild and he knew the importance of using all parts. Even the bones had value. Bone marrow was quite nutritious, and not bad tasting at all. Of course, when one was starving, everything tasted good. “It is wasteful to not utilize every part of the animal,” said Legolas. “A creature gave its life so that we may consume its body and be nourished by it. It would be an insult to the animal not to make use of every part of its body.” “I’d never thought of it that way,” said Logan, “but your elven philosophy kinda makes sense to me. And that’s a compliment, by the way. I don’t like philosophy.” “I take it your people do not view things the same way,” said Legolas. “No way,” said Logan. “If you told them you ate testicles, they’d be sickened. Actually, people throw away perfectly good meat just because it’s a little old.” “You must have an incredibly wasteful culture,” observed the elf. “Oh yeah,” said Logan. “We’ve got too much, and people start getting picky.” “Indeed,” said the elf. “I cannot imagine how much you have if you throw away meat simply because it is not the freshest. Such opulence.” “Such fancy language,” said Logan. I'll put this behind an lj-cut if any of you badly want me to do so. I know I have the brain of a 14-year-old boy, but I think this stuff is hysterical. (Comment on this)
6:52 pm	Ganked from kosmickway Take the first line from the first journal entry of each month and post it here to see your year-in-review. So I'm going back through my lj tagging all my Orc bibliography entries. Damn it. The idea is that you - I'd heard of it in passing but am just now focusing on it. http://www.amazon.de/Die-Anderen-gro%C3%9Fe-Orks-Elfen-Zwerge-Troll-Parodie/dp/3453523784/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241198958&sr=1-17 Wanna be startled?* I woke up an hour ago and couldn't get back to sleep. Real fireworks, I mean, going off over Beverly. I was in the laundry room at about 11pm - yeah, I know, what dummy does her laundry at 11pm? - when my hand suddenly went to my throat. Possibly more frenetic than the song "Pink Elephants" from Dumbo is the song "Pink Elephants" from Dumbo on Fast Forward 2X. Hit Salem last night with two friends and we had a blast. I'm catching up on my Neil Gaiman. Alas...it is nothing like poetry. ____ *Really. Click it, I dare you. (Comment on this)
11:10 am	I am reading. (When am I not?) The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy. At this point I've only watched the first two movies and while I can't say they're my favorite horror movies in execution (they tend to make me giggle rather than truly disturbing or unnerving me), they ARE very interesting. And influential, clearly. So I found this monograph while I was trying to hunt down the others in VirtCat and I decided I had to check it out. It's a fairly cerebral book and I feel like the author occasionally stretches things (analogies, symbolism, etc.) to make a point, but it is nonetheless interesting as well. One thing I'm a little startled by, though: no allusions or comparisons whatsoever to 1986's Labyrinth? Which came out a year before the first Hellraiser movie - admittedly not that much in common aside from an annoying lead heroine (sorry Jennifer Connelly) accidentally summoning an inhuman entity and trying to rescue a family member from malignant forces - and two years before Hellbound: Hellraiser II - ok, there's a FRIKKIN' LABYRINTH IN THERE, guy! I guess all the references to Jean Cocteau crowded that one out. But it does weird things to my mind, thinking about Jareth and Pinhead together. Their labyrinths are different (cute goblins versus S&M demons from Hell), but they themselves are both about dark and forbidden desires. Plus they're both terribly British. I wonder if they're pen pals? (Here's hoping I don't get the massive rainbow of evil effect that I got the last time I posted a picture of Pinhead.) (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
7:08 pm	Thank you Arif Shah. There are many men in this world named Arif Shah, but the one who works for Symantec has my most effusive thanks at the moment. (He has my computer's as well.) On a side note, it is scary but cool to see these computer gurus ghosting through one's files via remote access. I am glad they use their powers for good. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
1:25 pm	Terry Pratchett: w00t. I've been compiling a list of authors I need to read to be more well-rounded. One of these authors is Terry Pratchett. As I have been telling anyone who is the sort of person I would talk to about this, I am tragically behind on my Pratchett. I started off strong in my early teens with his Truckers/Diggers/FliersWings (thanks jesskat!) trilogy, Carpet Land, and of course a number of the Discworld books: The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites and...Guards! Guards!, I think but am not certain. It's been a long time, you see, and there is my grievous sin. Good Omens is probably the last thing I ever read by Pratchett, and that was at least fifteen years ago. Anyway, I've been muttering about needing to read more Pratchett, but now I have another reason to get with the program, and it comes in around Book#37 of the Discworld series: ( spoiler for Unseen Academicals. ) So, you see, I cannot AFFORD not to read Terry Pratchett anymore. Even if I didn't want to read him in the first place. Which I do, because he is cool. It's just that somewhere along the road I lost my way. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea MAXIMA culpa... (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 13th, 2009
10:13 am	Writer's Block: Role model Is there any character from a novel or film that serves as a role model to you? What kind of advice do you think she or he would give you regarding any major issues you're facing right now? Submitted By masakali View 674 Answers Loki Ok, his origins aren't in any one novel or film, but he's amply represented in media and he's been on my mind lately. I'm not a slavish devotee. I don't sacrifice skittles to him on an altar and I've never caught a flame-haired man in my room at night watching me have sex or stealing my left shoe. If I did, I would probably go see a doctor. And I don't think of him as an unmixed nexus of positive energy in the world. Even if you believe that Norse mythology and the idea of Loki have been corrupted by Christian interpretation, I think that Loki is more than a little wicked. (No, he's not a Satan analogue, but yes, he does some evil shit, and as interesting as it is to discuss how even his more horrific deeds can be interpreted in an ultimately beneficial light, I'm not up for white-washing.) But is he a teacher? Some one to learn from and/or emulate? Sure, I would agree with that, albeit to a highly selective degree. And the head-voice I've been getting from him lately has been coached in words clear and crystal: You need to be more receptive. As for what the heck that means and to what it refers, I have no idea. And Zebeckras, you've probably already guessed this, but I read it. Eight Days of Luke = AWESOME. Now why isn't it a movie? In a RASH of movies based on kids' novels, many of which really aren't suited to and don't succeed upon the big screen... It would require no more than modest special effects, though I doubt not that any director/producer team would throw in as many pyrotechnics as possible. And doubtless make all the characters American and set it in Midwest suburbia or some such business. Weirdly enough, that would not offend me. Maybe because Diane Wynne Jones was already taking Norse mythology and injecting it into a thoroughly alien landscape: a mundane Britain of the '70s. Doing the same but in a mundane America of 2010 feels like just another path to me, neither more nor less viable, and could be entertaining. I do think the boy-home-from-boarding-school aspect is important, but hey, there are some boarding schools in the United States, after all. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
9:01 am	Laptop emergency. My AC adapter is dead. It was dying steadily over the course of the past few days, so even though I wasn't able to go out and buy a new one I did have time to make sure all my files were saved and backed up and to do some other tidying on my computer. Nonetheless now that the adapter is dead I still find myself scrambling, so if anyone is waiting for anything from me I hope you won't be offended if I am a tad unresponsive at the moment. (Comment on this)
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
4:55 pm	[blink blink blink] I have badly abused my eyes in the past month. I should give them time to recover, but there is so much I have to do. In other news, I updated Orc-brat. Chapter 24 is short: a collection of drabbles from the POV of the eight Orcs who left on the raid in Chapter 23. That is to say, Bragdagash, Grymawk, Nazluk, Pryszrim, Kurbag, Rukshash, Grushak (sort of - he didn't really cooperate), and Hrahragh. Originally I tried to unify this chapter with an overarching storyline from the POV of one of the villagers, but finally I decided that this didn't make sense. It's a battle. It is a collection of impressions that shouldn't be unified if it is going to be what it is. Still, it's the first time I've done anything quite like this so I would definitely appreciate any criticism. In still other news, I am trying to hunt down at least some of the music I've been listing for my bibliography so that I can say I've made an honest attempt at coverage. Starting with the band Summoning since I was surprisingly pleased by their song "Mirdautas Vras," and their œuvre is well-represented on YouTube. Cannot find "Racing With the Battle-orcs" anywhere, though, however hard I look. It's a gorgeous-sounding title but seemingly lost to posterity. Edit: Oh! Never mind, it's called Raising With the Battle-Orcs. I've found it now. Thank you Wikipedia! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 5th, 2009
4:52 pm	Spiderwick Chronicles: It's just been that sort of day. In the spirit of honesty, I feel I should mention that I watched The Spiderwick Chronicles this morning, which may be one reason - do I really NEED one? - why I am in a goblinish sort of mood. The movie was not all that good, and I'll admit, I haven't read the books yet (oh Laud shame! shame!) but I did get a kick out of all the little goblins running about the place. Red Cap was entertaining but the credits were stupid: could NOT figure out who voiced him. According to...the internet [gestures vaguely]...it's Ron Perlman, but since Ron Perlman voices Hellboy and there is actually a Hellboy cartoon about the Red Cap goblin of folklore, I was inclined to dismiss this as misinformation that crept in somewhere along the way. At least at first. Seeing it repeated in so many different places, I am starting to believe it. Sadly, Rule 34 has failed me and there is no Spiderwick pr0n out there. I would have like to see some Mulgarath/Red Cap smut. (j/k! sorta.) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
4:18 pm	Orc cull in progress. So I've finally gotten serious about going through the Tolkien Music List web site and culling all the relevant-looking music for inclusion in my bibliography. For now it's in a separate document - multiple separate documents, actually - because so much of this going to be so very wrong. So far I've nabbed everything with orc, ork, uruk-, or goblin in it, in very incomplete citation form. Next I'll move on to named Orcs (Shagrat, Gorbag, etc.) and Orkish terminology and locales (snaga, Lugburz, etc.) ( Cut for length. ) In other news I am rocking out a little to Nekrogoblikon. Somebody on my f-list was complaining recently about the old Pirates vs Ninjas meme. I'm'a change my mind and say...goblins. Yar, that little green bastard stole my skin! / Who's got your skin now, you dirty pirate?! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
1:25 pm	Cell phones - help! Guys! All-points bulletin: What kind of cell phone do you have? - how long have you had it? - what does it do? - are you glad you have it? - if not, what would you want instead and why? - how much did it cost? (you don't have to answer that if you don't want to, I know that's very inquisitive) I ask because my dad wants to get me a new phone for Christmas and, while I've been pretty happy with my cell phone of the past five years, I do get comments when I take it out of my pocket. ("That's a cell phone?!") It was very no-frills even in 2004; nowadays it draws the kind of looks I might receive if I were carrying around an old rotary dial telephone. Plus, it's part of my almost-New Year's resolution to get more with it, technology-wise. And I guess learn how to text and all that. BTW, looking at the bullets above, if you see a consideration that I am missing, please voice it. I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to cell phones. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
8:24 am	Finished The Graveyard Book ( Cut for one-line snark/spoiler. ) (Comment on this)
Friday, December 4th, 2009
5:51 pm	The Graveyard Book? The Jungle Book. From ‘The Graveyard Book’ Wins Newbery Medal: When his son, Michael, now 25, was very young, the family was living in a home in Sussex, England, without a yard, Mr. Gaiman recalled, and so he would take him to a graveyard across the street to ride his tricycle. “I remember thinking once how incredibly at home he looked there,” Mr. Gaiman said. “I thought you could write something a lot like ‘The Jungle Book’ and set it in a graveyard,” he added. Do I know how to call it or what? I *swear* I did not read this article before I made my previous post, I swear it. (Comment on this)
1:52 pm	He's such a dreamy fellow. I'm catching up on my Neil Gaiman. I have some five books of his out that I had not read before. Have now read Anansi Boys and Odd and the Frost Giants, am reading The Graveyard Book, and yet to be opened are InterWorld and Fragile Things. I liked, nay, LOVED Anansi Boys. Honestly? American Gods did not do it for me. (This needs clarification: there were parts that I loved about this book. Like the interlude at the House on the Rocks - I've been there! It is just that cool! And the chapter - short story, really - about Salim and the Ifrit stands up beautifully as its own piece: perfect as a jewel. But the book as a whole...I just never really got into the characters. Plus I think they could have gotten a lot more mileage out of one of the characters than they do. If you know me and you know my predilection for a certain Norse god, you'll know who.) But Anansi Boys was great, and while I have nothing against loose ends, I loved how everything and everyone was tidied away at the finish. The best would have to be Graham Coates, who was so repellent that I fell a little in love with him. His fate is so cartoonish and epic, it feels like a deleted scene from The Lion King. Horrid, wonderful little man. Odd and the Frost Giants was ok. Again, I like Neil Gaiman and I like Norse mythology, and I like it when Neil Gaiman does Norse mythology, but this just didn't feel as substantial as I might have liked. (Excuses that it is a children's book and/or that it is short do not hold up for me.) I think the narrative was trying to subtly identify or otherwise link the Frost Giant with Odd's dead father, which would have been an interesting tie-in but wasn't fully realized. But that's just my humble opinion. Gaiman says he'd be interested in writing more about Odd, and I suppose I'd be interested in reading more. Nothing to say about the The Graveyard Book except that I am liking it very much indeed, and also that when the ghouls took Bod it felt like a sepulchral version of The Jungle Book. I wonder if Gaiman had that in mind. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 30th, 2009
7:44 am	Singing O Willow Waly... Well! Now I shall have no trouble falling back to sleep for the next half hour. [amused] This song was performed in the movie The Innocents, which I saw fairly recently with a coworker. It's on a couple of Top Scary Movie lists. The main character is an annoying wench, and my takeaway afterward was, it's hard to know how much of the movie is "true" paranormal activity and how much is the old idea of female hysteria and a highly repressed woman's resentment of two dead people for having a better sex life than she does. I also said to a friend afterward that it reminded me a lot of Sarah Water's Affinity ("Peter Quint!" "Peter Quick"! and aside from the similarity of the names, how suggestive they both are...) and she told me that actually a lot of people believe that Affinity is a latter day homage to Henry James' The Turn of the Screw (hey, another suggestive title.) That reminds me. I need to set some time aside to read a butt-load of Henry James, E. M. Forster and Edith Wharton for some earnest literary indulgence. Edit: Screw it, Lauderdale, you're not going back to sleep at this point. Go take a shower, you have work in a bit. (Comment on this)
7:03 am	Nanowrimo, day 30. I reached my 50K at a write-in yesterday, but when I tried to validate my word count I got shot in the foot for my copious employment of dashes. So I set to work applying my master plan: write an improbable half-baked frame story to pad my word count and turn my crap collection of bibliographies and fanfiction into a hideous, HIDEOUS "novel." I used two characters I'd dreamed up the other day when I first got the idea of using a frame story, and it was entertaining. They're very one-dimensional at present, but I do not hate Brom the hacker goblin and Bacchus the jaded city-dwelling dryad. I wouldn't even mind writing an actually decent story with them in it. Anyway, ultimately I wrote well over 7000 words yesterday (more than I had thought I would have to write) but when I tried to validate again at 54000 words my connection wasn't working. Fine, sez I, I'll go to the bar down the street, which I did, and ordered a daquiri and set up my laptop, but it still did not work. Fuck, sez I, and goes home again, and gives it a few more attempts. draqonelle was one the phone with me at the time, and she can tell you about some of the unimaginative obscenities I used before I finally gave up and went to bed. Well, it worked this time anyway, so...yay! Behold the shiny new icon! I'll probably use it for a week before I get bored and go back to the old "I EAT MY CUPCAKES WITH MILK" one, but...yeah. For now, I bask in the fireworks. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
12:33 pm	Well damn. I'm not really into the WoW Orcs as much, but it's pretty cool watching it come together. Wish I had a nice girl with a make-up sponge thing when I was decking myself out this Halloween. Dunno about you, but I think the chicken feet totally make it. (Comment on this)
12:13 pm	This is the message I just sent draqonelle Hey dude, I've pulled ahead of you. It is...[checks] 12:10pm on Sunday the 29th and I am at 48527. Plan is to hit 50K before the end of the day and LEAVE YOU IN THE DUST! See you at the finish line. BD Mua-ha-ha-ha... (Comment on this)