updates, quirks, and thanks

[eldritchhobbit]

Happy belated birthdays to animated_max and gypsyjr, and happy birthday to carpdeus. Best wishes to you for a wonderful year!

I've been buried under finals and grading, so I've missed out on mentioning a few items of interest:

Re: History

Hobbit May Be First Australian
(The Hobbit-like humans of Indonesia may have lived in Australia.)

Oldest Known Maya Mural, Tomb Reveal Story of Ancient King
(amazing new insights into the origins of Maya art, writing, and rule)

Re: Literature

There are new books available for preorder as well as news updates from Valancourt Books, a wonderful press that offers quality reprints of rare Gothic novels.
(I'm especially excited about The Witch of Ravensworth, personally.)

Rumor has it Prince Caspian has been greenlit by Disney as the next Narnia film.

Re: Fandom

Koenig, Cawley Talk 'New Voyages' Surprises
(an interesting case of blurring the lines between a "fan" series and a "professional" series)

"Cthulu by Ego" film
(a parody must-see for fans of Lovecraft - thanks to sneezythesquid for this)


I've been tagged by several friends, most recently by st_crispins, for this, so here goes:



Ground Rules: The first player of this "game" starts with the topic "5 weird habits of yours" and people who get tagged need to write an LJ entry about their 5 quirks as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next 5 people to be tagged and list their names.

1. When I travel, the first thing I do when I reach my hotel is unpack my clothes and iron every piece that needs pressing. I feel unsettled about conducting whatever business I have if I don't know all of my clothes for the entire trip are pressed. (Yes, I carry a travel iron.)

2. I've only owned one pair of tennis shoes/trainers in my adult life, and they were required for an aerobic walking class I took as an undergraduate. For some reason, trainers look strange to me, and I can't bring myself to wear them.

3. My comfort zone for room temperature is approximately 65 degrees (Farenheit). My house and office stay at this temperature year-round. The first thing I do when I enter a classroom is adjust the thermostat.

4. If I hear a song once, even in a store or as background noise, I usually can remember all of its words (even if I was not aware of listening to the song at the time). In the past I prepped for particularly difficult exams by setting my notes to a familiar tune, recording myself singing them, and then playing my notes back to myself - because once I heard them, I knew them.

5. I have very little sense of direction or place. I keep a written list of detailed directions to many places I go regularly but not daily, because I often must reuse them. I think there's a whole section of my brain that simply doesn't work; it probably was overrun by my brain's lyrics database. :)

I won't tag anyone to do this. If you haven't yet, and you'd like to do so, please do.




And huge thanks to those who have sent me lovely cards/letters/packages, including euclase (I'm still in awe), thrihyrne (will be writing back shortly), fungus_files (I love the turtles), sneezythesquid (thanks so much for the tape), aragornlover (hope your back is better), llembas (hysterical card - and I love the quote), and sunnysky (what a beautiful card - my sentiments exactly). Happy, happy holidays to you!

Quote of the day:

"In the sunken city of R'lyeh dread Cthulhu has drunk all the wassail, again."
~melissagay