(no subject)

First and foremost, cruisedirector has just posted an exquisite RL/SS fic that everyone should read: Escapism
As one of her commentors said, I want to write like her when I grow up.

We got our photo shoot pics last night before class started and I've thrown a few that I thought were decent up here. I just don't photograph well, but M- did what she could and I appreciate that. Still wish I had more and better veil shots, but one fairly nice one isn't too shabby. There's an absolutely gorgeous one of silkblade and aelfsciene with veils that I know Aelf is going to enjoy. Also there's a fantastic full body shot of silkblade in the Silk Road costume that I'm just astonished didn't make it into the calendar. Aelf, I have your copy of the pics I can hand you Friday night. Alyne said she'd put some Rakkasah shots on the disc as well but I didn't see them.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we've got one damn fine looking troupe.

We made it through the shortened Soiree Odalisque choreography last night, with special emphasis on Tammerhenna with zills. It is sounding better but there's still a part where I can't figure out what's being played to save my life. And the end is so abrupt that we end up kind of clanking to a stop. Not exactly the sound we're looking for there. Still, we did come up with a way to do the shimmy zilling that sounds so much better. Of course I'm not competing in the next performance so I'm utterly relaxed about the zilling, Alyne, however, looks like she's beginning to wish we'd started this way sooner.

Still, overall it went well and I managed Hinko fine, though my back was acting up a bit. It's good to know I've still got that one in my brain and body. I'm going to go to the choreography workshop on Sunday as well to see if I can get back to doing Goddess as well. I can remember bits and pieces of it, but that's about it.

Aside from that not much to report, I'm meeting the kitties I'll be cat sitting for tonight after Lost. And with any luck I'll accomplish slightly more this evening that I have in the past two. *fingers crossed*

More books I have to read

So I picked up "Unity" this weekend, one of the DS9 novels I decided I needed to get through after finding out accidentally in the first "Worlds of DS9" novel that I'd missed the return of the Emissary. At the beginning there was a summary of all the stuff that had happened in the previous novels, which I thought I'd read most of. As it turns out, I'd missed some significant stuff. Really significant stuff.

The two things that convinced me that I need to own all of these books, however, was the inclusion of an encounter between the Borg and Dominion. My fangirl-ish toes curled at the possibilities there. And, do you remember an episode back in TNG where these creepy parasites tried to take over Starfleet by inhabiting the bodies of the upper muckety-mucks? A plot line that had all kinds of possibilities and was totally dropped and never discussed again? Well these novels brought it back, and it is a major problem for Bajor and Trill in particular. I'm like two chapters into "Unity" and already planning to hit Amazon and order all the ones I don't currently have in the series.

Gods, even in book form DS9 remains the best Star Trek ever.

Agendas a'plenty

So apparently April 14 is the "Day of Truth" wherein fundie students protest the "homosexual agenda" as a response to the Day of Silence where students protest discrimination and anti-gay harassment. Mm-kay. A commentor at Metafilter came up with the best response to this I've ever read or could possibly imagine. Enjoy:

I hear that the suicide rate is high among young Christians, who are beaten, ridiculed, and even killed every day for bringing their Bibles to school. Thousands of them a year are thrown out of their own homes by abusive parents for bearing witness to the gospel, and their prayer groups are regularly harassed, even by school authorities. Many Jewish kids who are mistaken for Catholic become the target of brutal violence, and if a pious youngster confides in a trusted teacher that he or she has been reborn in Jesus Christ, they may be told that their faith can be cured by psychiatric intervention or religious counseling. Some schools have banned all extracurricular clubs to prevent a single Bible-study group from being formed. I feel really sorry for young Christians. They turn on the TV and all they see are Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindus, with the occasional token Christian thrown in for comic relief or added color on a reality show. It must be a very lonely way to grow up.
posted by digaman