incidents and accidents, hints and allegations

I just read about tweetle beetles for the poetree community. If you remember Fox in Socks fondly, you should too, it's fun and takes literally only a minute or two! You don't need the book either, jjhunter has the excerpt.

(Actually the formative Seuss tongue-twister book of my childhood is the other one, Oh Say Can You Say?, the one with the bread/bed spreader and the shinbone pins, but SteelyKid loved Fox in Socks for a while and the tweetle beetles were my favorite part, so I could not resist. And now, WisCon packing.)

I am going to try to use Wednesdays as a day to booklog in the future, but in the meantime, look! I updated the booklog this month! Here are the April 2013 posts--lots of Discworld (though I'm still not caught up), some Courtney Milan, and finally the Rivers of London books.

Because I can hear Chad reading SteelyKid one of these from the other room, or at least I could when I started this post.

SteelyKid has been on a kick where she wants bedtime stories that are shiny, that is, have one of the Caldecott Medals embossed on their covers. As we tend to take the dust jackets off her books, this can be a little tricky, but last night she and I hit a really good set, all of which I recommend:

Tuesday by David Wiesner, a nearly-wordless book about a Tuesday night when frogs start flying on lily pads. (We also really like his wordless Flotsam and delightfully-meta The Three Pigs).

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems, which is great energetic fun. (The Pigeon is in a bunch of books and has a cameo in the also-awesome Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs.)

(I was given a T-shirt that says "I have dreams, you know!" and I was so, so sad that it is too small. One day I will replace it.)

Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein, which out of a batch of adorable fun books is perhaps my favorite to read, because the interrupting chicken is so sweet and her long-suffering papa is so long-suffering, and also because I love anyone who interrupts "Little Red Riding Hood" with "Out jumped a little red chicken, and she said, 'Don't talk to strangers!' So Little Red Riding Hood didn't. The end!"

Because, as I've said before, they make me feel like I'm interacting with people.

So: I have no idea what my Dragaeran House would be (I suppose it ought to be Iorich, but that book entirely eluded me, so I don't think I actually think the way an Iorich does), though I guess my Ajah would probably be Blue. What do you think—about mine, and about yours?

( radio buttons and ticky boxes )

Edit: Hogwarts House, of course, I knew I was missing an obvious one. (Ravenclaw.)

MTV asks Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, and Andy Serkis, to play Fuck, Marry, Kill with Tolkien characters, and it is amazing: three-minute video.

(Nb.: not seeing The Hobbit until this weekend, no movie spoilers.)

The Gameological Society has an ode to Glitch, for those of you who played.

Tobias Buckell, "How I used Kickstarter to reboot a book series, and my career (and maybe my life?)".

Okay, I'm done now, honest.

Have some Internet things:

One: The guys on an ESPN football show apparently decided to work in as many Princess Bride quotes as they could into a half-hour. Hilarity ensues, by which I mean, I hurt myself laughing at this 1:38 clip video pulling out all the references.

( embedded video )

Two: I've started re-reading The Hobbit chapter-by-chapter over on Tor.com; here's the Chapter 1 post. Do stop by, it should be fun.

Three: SteelyKid has started sending email. No, I'm serious, she hunt-and-pecks the letters, sometimes asking us for spelling but not always, and then we click "send" together. She's visiting Chad's parents right now and behind the cut I have the very best email chain ever.

( emails from SteelyKid )

I'd send her back a smiley-face but I'm not sure she's understand. Gosh I love that kid.

Four: con_or_bust is now taking requests for assistance from non-white fans/fans of color to attend SFF cons in January, February, and March 2012—including Arisia, FOGCon, and EightSquaredCon (the 2013 Eastercon), which have all donated to support Con or Bust. See this post for information on how to request assistance.

Things I am grateful for (or that, depending on the phrasing), daily during November.

( past days, for my own reference )

15. Gotta go with the Internet today, for all kinds of things, not just the above.

(This was going to be "an idle query" and then I kept remembering stuff.)

One: does Avengers fandom have an unusually high number of de-aging fics?

Two: for reasons I am entirely unable to articulate even to myself, I am uncomfortable with being complimented on anonymous love memes. In the event anyone was thinking of nominating me for any that come along, please don't, thanks. (I already asked the host of the most recent one. Which, hey, if you would like such a thing, there it is.)

(Two point five: if I am being discussed in other anonymous contexts please don't tell me about it unless you think I should consider taking specific action to protect my wellbeing. As in, ages ago I ended up blocking ffa on all my machines because it was seriously fucking with my head. Thanks.)

Three: I finished a book (Possession)! And I really want to talk about it! Now I just have to find the time. And inspired by this success, I'm going to start reading Code Name Verity, which is only the most talked-about book on my reading list of the year. I just hope it holds up to being read in increments of about 20 minutes/day.

Four: the Pip would like you all to know that it's hard getting teeth but going down slides is awesome.

I was having a discussion about the Vorkosigan books over on G+ (prompted by the eARC of the Ivan book becoming available) and thought I should bring these mini-rants over here for multiple cut tags and also potential interest. Don't read if you don't want spoilers or you don't want your squee harshed; I love the series but not uncritically, and if that's not your thing, have some kittens instead.

( A Civil Campaign )

( Diplomatic Immunity )

( Cryoburn )

Despite, or perhaps because of, these rants, I am interested in the Ivan book, though I am so tired that I think I will probably wait on reading it for a bit.

the first of his Egyptian-mythology books, which share an Earth with his Greek-mythology books, and I'm kind of weirded out by the claim that the Egyptian gods are so dangerous that Egyptian magicians have spent the last two thousands years binding and banishing them, while the Greek gods get to bop around doing basically whatever they like. My knowledge of Egyptian myth is not deep, granted, but I never got the impression that its gods were qualitatively different from any other pantheon that actively involved itself in mortals' lives, you know?

I know several of you have read and liked these, so tell me whether it's worth continuing?

So I've just finished Kalpa Imperial by Angelica Gorodischer (translated by Ursula Le Guin), and now I'm stuck for what to read next.

Here's the problem, the way Kalpa Imperial starts:

The storyteller said: Now that the good winds are blowing, now that we’re done with days of anxiety and nights of terror, now that there are no more denunciations, persecutions, secret executions and whim and madness have departed from the heart of the Empire and we and our children aren’t playthings of blind power; now that a just man sits on the Golden Throne and people look peacefully out of their doors to see if the weather’s fine and plan their vacations and kids go to school and actors put their hearts into their lines and girls fall in love and old men die in their beds and poets sing and jewelers weigh gold behind their little windows and gardeners rake the parks and young people argue and innkeepers water the wine and teachers teach what they know and we storytellers tell old stories and archivists archive and fishermen fish and all of us can decide according to our talents and lack of talents what to do with our life -- now anyone can enter the emperor’s palace out of need or curiosity; anybody can visit that great house which was for so many years forbidden, prohibited, defended by armed guards, locked and as dark as the souls of the Warrior Emperors of the dynasty of the Ellydrovides.

(Nicked from papersky's review.)

That is, as you can see, kind of a hard act to follow. I'm thinking maybe I want something with a very strong first-person voice? Or something elegantly minimalist? Any suggestions?

(Hmm. Maybe Octavian Nothing, but that might be kind of harsh. I'd go for some nonfiction, but I want strong narrative too.)

ETA: I have just remembered that what I need to do next is review source for a Yuletide beta that I said I'd do, but further recs are welcome all the same.