Ramblings of an Owlmoose

Well, this is scary

owlmoose@gmail.com — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:20:52 GMT

Sobering "tale from the trenches of science journalism" presented by PZ Meyers. Never has "don't believe everything you read" seemed more appropriate.

Oh my god, OMG you guys

owlmoose@gmail.com — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 04:51:44 GMT

I saw Dennis Haysbert in a restaurant this afternoon! He was just walking by my table, calm and cool as could be. I didn't say anything, I just sat and stared, unable to take my eyes off of him until he was out of sight, hopefully not too embarrassingly open-mouthed. This is not quite as exciting as it would have been 7 years ago when I was a full-blown "24" fangirl, but it was still really, really cool.

He was a lot taller than I imagined he would be, and his smile is even bigger in person.

In other news, I went to a baseball game tonight, and although no one threw a no hitter this time (curse my luck for picking a game one day too late!), it was still an enjoyable outing. Even though it rained on us a little bit. Rain? In San Francisco? In July? What is this world coming to? On the upside, I saw one of the most spectacular rainbows of my life, springing out of the scoreboard and covering the sky. T took some pictures, and if he decides any are worthy of posting, I will definitely link.

Gameblogging: Final Fantasy 12

owlmoose@gmail.com — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:43:42 GMT

I took advantage of being home sick the other day to finally start my long-planned replay of Final Fantasy 12. The first time through, I played with T, which always means rushing through faster than I would like, so I wanted a slower, more thorough replay where I get all the sidequests and talk to NPCs and so forth. And this seemed like a good time because... well, let's just say, I have my reasons.

I'm now about 10 hours in, with about an hour or two of that pure leveling, just finished Leviathan, and here are some random thoughts :

So if Rehks was Gabranth and Vayne's witness, the one they needed to finger Basch for the killing of the king, that means that he has to have lived at least long enough to tell someone. So how long did he live, after the massacre in Nalbina? Might he still be alive? The White Room scene still seems ambiguous to me. Vaan seems pretty convinced that he's dead, though.

Penelo may think that Vaan is a punk kid and an irritating little brother, but she also seems to be pretty sweet on him. Maybe it's just my various 'ship preferences coming through, but as early as Bhujerba, I'm seeing the seeds of the Vaan/Penelo/Larsa triangle being sown. Larsa is just as awesome on the second play-through, by the way. So is Penelo -- I'd forgotten just how much I liked her from the very beginning, and that I was waiting from the very beginning for her to be a full-time part of the party.

When Balthier and Larsa meet in Bhujerba for the first time and Larsa introduces himself as "Lamont", I could swear that Balthier knows who Larsa is, or at least suspects. And vice versa. At the very least, there's a weird tension there.

Some things are totally obvious on a replay: Balthier's reaction to first hearing the name "Draklor Laboratories" from Larsa and his derisive comments about the judges while they're in the dungeon, Dr. Cid chatting away to an invisible Venat on his first appearance. The Dr. Cid bit was played particularly nicely -- he walks past Gabranth, apparently holding a conversation with himself; Gabranth pauses, and you can just imagine what his face must look like behind the helm, his raised eyebrows safely hidden from the world.

The Leviathan is such a great place to level. Enemies keep coming, all the same enemies so you can get some crazy chains going, and there are plenty of safe places to retreat. One of the potential pitfalls of a replay is that you don't spend nearly as much time flailing (I know I at least spent a lot of time running around in circles, in the dungeons and in the mines), so you have to make a concerted effort to level. The only downside of the Leviathan is that there's no ready source of cash -- the soldiers drop gil (or whatever it's called in this game -- I forget off the top of my head), but generally not as much as you would get for selling fiend loot. Although I do appreciate the way this game has the enemies drop things that make sense: soldiers have money, potions, and other restoratives; animals have pelts, other creatures have things that relate to the kind of beastie they are. Knowing from the very beginning that you're just supposed to sell all that stuff, that you aren't saving it up for some kind of item synthesis, has made gameplay a lot easier this time through.

Take that!

owlmoose@gmail.com — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:19:04 GMT

So I finished Phoenix Wright 3 yesterday.

As a whole, I'd say the games were fun, and enjoyable, if frustrating at times. Overall, I liked the story quite a lot, although I took such a long break in the middle of PW3 that it's hard for me to remember what exactly happened before. I'm tempted to play them all again, both to remind myself of all that came before, and because I was just settling back into the puzzles and gameplay when it was all over. Not sure it would be worth the time it would take to replay, though, although I'm sure it'll go much faster when I'm not running down all kinds of blind alleys.

I found the last case of PW3 to be the most satisfying overall, because it wove together so many threads from all three games. I figured out, of course, that Godot was Diego Armando pretty much the second Diego appeared in Mia's last case, but I didn't really understand *why* he came back as Godot until just before he told us. The Iris/Dahlia storyline was good, too, and kept me guessing in ways I enjoyed. The "big reveal" about Iris and Nick at the end didn't quite work for me, though, and I also found that Nick's character was written somewhat inconsistently throughout, mostly in terms of how much he cares about Maya at any given time -- he's so frantic with worry on the night of the murder that he charges across a burning bridge to save her, but when an earthquake threatens to bring down the place where he believes her to be trapped, he expresses more concern about Edgeworth and his phobia? It seems like the game wants to keep its options open for possible romantic entanglements: does Nick have feelings for Maya? Mia? (T 'ships Nick/Mia big time -- when we were playing the first game, he kept hoping the game would give us an option to ask Mia out) Iris? Miles? All or none of the above? That was fine in the first game, and even in the second, but I would have liked a little more closure here.

In conclusion, I liked these games, I'm glad I played them, and would recommend them to anyone who likes puzzle games with a good story. Also, Diego Armando is hot.

Anyone played Apollo Justice? Is it the same game with different characters, or does it add anything new in terms of gameplay? Does it carry on the PW storyline? Any (non-spoilery, if possible) thoughts are appreciated.

It's Bulwer-Lytton time!

owlmoose@gmail.com — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:11:18 GMT

Presenting the 2009 winners. I haven't read them all yet, but the grand prize winner actually made me laugh out loud.

Back home again

owlmoose@gmail.com — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:42:20 GMT

Ah, home, with kitties and T and just missing a heatwave, although I hear it was actually rather nice in SF proper. At least I got two days of good weather in New England, and one of them was our beach day on Cape Code. (The other was the day we drove to Vermont, so at least we got sun on the most important days for it.) Provicetown is really nice, although the stony beaches are hard to walk on -- if I ever go back, I will definitely bring water shoes of some sort. Pretty, though. The town itself is very cute and full of dangerous stores, selling things like jewelry and chocolates and clothes I can actually wear. It's also a major gay rseort town, which led to one of the jewelry store owners making some incorrect assumptions when I was looking over anzubird's shoulder as she browsed the ring selection. ;) We happened to be there during the annual Portuguese Festival, so we saw two parades and some traditional dancing. There was some cool music, too. But the highlight had to be the Naked Boys Singing.

The second day was foggy and chilly, but at least it didn't rain. Then on Monday, amybang and I checked out the MFA, where I'd never been. It's an impressve museum, although it would have been even more impressive if they weren't in the middle of a huge construction project, with a significant portion of their collection off exhibit as a result. Still worth going, though, even if I'll have to go back in 2010 when the new wing is completed. Monday night was pub trivia, another new experience on a trip full of them; our team came out 4th out of 14 teams. Not bad really, although we blew a few things we should have known.

Then the uneventful flight home yesterday and the re-entry into work today, only a two day week for me since we get Friday off for July 4th. Not bad for the start of break. Hopefully I get some time to relax soon, though, since I've been in go mode for a few weeks now.

Summer days

owlmoose@gmail.com — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:52:30 GMT

So far, a quite enjoyable trip. Flight was delayed by over an hour and a half but was otherwise uneventful -- I think I even slept a little. I got in around 9am, and then we left for our road trip to Vermont, where we had much yummy ice cream and cheese and maple sugar candy. The sun eluded us for the morning, but around lunchtime the clouds cleared and we found ourselves experiencing a lovely summer day -- we even got to take down the top of the convertible while we tooled around Waterbury. Then we got home late and crashed.

Today was a lazily-exploring-Boston day: pancakes for breakfast, pedicures, walking around downtown, having tea at the public library -- they have a really nice cafe where they serve afternoon tea; it was tasty, if a little heavy on the sweets as opposed to the savories. This evening, we met up with concertinette and her husband for dinner, and then they came back to amybang's for some excellent hanging out and chatting and playing with the kittens. Did I mention the kittens? There are two, they are nine months old and totally adorable. A moth came in, and watching them chase it was both hilarious and adorable. They didn't catch it, but they're still half looking for it to come back. I can tell.

Tomorrow we head off to Cape Cod, another place I've never been. We're taking the ferry to Provincetown (yay boats!) and spending the night at an inn. I won't be bringing the laptop, so I'll bid you all adieu for the next couple of days. Adieu!

State of the Moose

owlmoose@gmail.com — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:24:32 GMT

Summer break, woo! It was a couple of crazy quarters there, but now it's over. Three weeks with no students, and now that the various meetings that cap the whole thing off are done I can actually relax.

Unfortunately, we don't actually get three weeks off. When I tell people I work at a college and that summer break is started, they tend to assume that I get three weeks of vacation, but no such luck. I am, however, taking a week on my own -- tomorrow night, I fly to Boston, from where I will finally make the pilgrimage to Ben & Jerry's (and cross Vermont off the list of states I haven't visited! Which will finish off New England, at long last) and then spend a few days hanging out with amybang and anzubird -- we're planning on a visit to Provincetown, if the rain doesn't wash it away, and other fun stuff. I get back next Tuesday.

Let's see, what else... the poison oak has almost faded, although I'm still peeling in places and have to fend off the occasional itching fit. I got a new keyboard to replace the one that died a couple of months ago -- it was getting old anyway, I think I bought it in 2000 when I got my G3 tower, but spilling a Diet Coke on it pretty much sealed its fate. Sadly, pretty much no one is making natural-style split keyboards for Macs anymore, probably because PC keyboards will work on a Mac now. So I got an MS Natural. It seems weird to be enthusiastic about a Microsoft product, but the shape of their natural keyboards works pretty much perfectly with my RSI issues, and the keys are incredibly responsive. I have one at work, too, so I knew I'd be happy with it. But I couldn't get it to work the way I wanted, so I bit the bullet and upgraded my OS to Leopard. On the plus side, the upgrade seems to have finally fixed my flaky wireless; fingers crossed that keeps working. In other technology news, I became an iPhone widow on Friday. T ordered it the day they were announced and started counting the hours, and it has gone above and beyond his expectations. I confess that seeing his in action has only increased temptation for me, but for now I'm still holding out.

In the media world, I finally got around to restarting Phoenix Wright 3, which I half-gave up on in the middle of the third case. Now I'm into the fifth case, which is awesome, but I can't talk about why without spoilers. So for right now, I'll content myself with sharing this fact: Diego Armando? Is HOT. As for books, right now I'm reading The Fall of Kings by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman; it's enjoyable, but I have no idea how they wrote it before The Privilege of the Sword without having mapped out that entire book first. Finally, I watched the first two episodes of Merlin, thanks to bottle_of_shine's rec. I enjoyed it, although it took me most of the first episode to get past the expectation that the characters would conform to standard Arthurian canon. I knew going in, of course, that Merlin was Arthur's age, so I didn't mind that at all, but there were enough other differences that I found it jarring at first. Fortunately, by the time I watched the second ep, I was able to sit back and relax into the characters as they were. I think Guenevere is my favorite so far, but only two eps in is a little soon to be making predictions. I'll keep watching for sure.

I guess that sums it up for now. I know I haven't been very visible here lately, in terms of posting or commenting, partly because of the poison oak and partly from work stress, but with luck this break will be just what I need to straighten my head out and spend more time being active and less time spacing out.

Meme fic: "Gifts"

owlmoose@gmail.com — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:52:01 GMT

Title: Gifts
Fandom: FFX-2
Rating: G
Wordcount: 972
Characters: Maechen
Spoilers: For Maechen's backstory, and (really indirectly) the end of FFX.
Notes: Written for muggy_mountain's request in the Alphabet Fic meme (which still has lots of open slots, if anyone is interested). She gave me the pairing "Maechen/books" and two prompt words, "herbs" and "wonder", and I mashed them all together into two kinda-related ficbits. My interpretation may be somewhat more liberal than was intended; if so, I can only beg your indulgence. (Can you tell I've been writing Maechen?)

It was a beautiful summer day in Zanarkand, and Maechen was, as usual, in the library. He loved being surrounded by his beloved dusty tomes, researching the history of Spira, of his home Zanarkand and its rival Bevelle, of the machina that powered the cities and the leaders that ruled them. Reading about the past made him feel connected to the world in a way that being out in the busy city streets, jostled by people and their messy emotions never did. He much preferred to read about life after the fact, when someone else had put all the facts in order and made sense of them.

"Dr. Maechen?" Quiet as the intruder was, the sound of her voice pierced the silence, and Maechen winced at the noise. Reluctantly, he turned toward the sound and saw one of his students walking across the reading room. She pulled out the chair across from him, and he winced at the scraping of its legs over the flagstone floor.

Maechen sat back in his chair, resting his hands flat on the tabletop. "Alyce. How may I be of assistance? Do you have questions about your final exam?"

Alyce shook her head. "Not at all. Actually, I'm here to thank you." She leaned across the table, and her fair hair swung forward, catching one of the sunbeams that streamed into the dark hall. "You're a great teacher, Dr. Maechen. I never knew that the history of Spira could be so interesting. I was dreading that class, but it turned out to be one of my very favorites. So, I wanted to give you something." Turning to the bag at her side, she pulled out a scrap of paper and laid it on the table. "It's a ticket for Lenne's big show tonight. It's just general admission -- the good seats sold out ages ago -- but my boyfriend has some friends who work at the stadium, and he worked things out so you can also use it as a backstage pass!"

Picking up the ticket, Maechen turned it around in his hands, frowning. "A very kind gesture, but...."

Her face fell. "You don't like Lenne? Aw, nuts. I knew I should have gotten you tickets to the blitz tournament instead."

Maechen shook his head. "No, no. You were correct; I do enjoy Lenne's singing, a great deal. She is one of the great songstresses of our age, and it would be an honor to meet her and to see her perform. But truly, Alyce, this was not necessary. I do appreciate the efforts, but I fear that I will not be able to make the best use of it." He glanced up at her. "I dislike crowds, you see, and I have a great deal of reading to do to prepare for the next university session. You should use this yourself, or give it to one of your friends."

He set the ticket down on the table. Alyce looked at it for a long moment, then met his eyes again with a decisive headshake. "Keep it," she said. "In case you change your mind." She stood up. "There's a whole real world out there, yeah? Only so much you can learn about it from books. You might be surprised." She smiled at him. "Anyway, thanks again."

"And I thank you." Maechen also rose from his seat and bowed his head. "Enjoy your evening." He remained standing until she was gone, then sat, reaching for the next book in his stack: a detailed history of the design and construction of Moonflow City. As he opened to the table of contents, he noticed something slip out of the pages in the middle -- not the old bookmark he would have expected, but a small moonlily, its pale pink petals flattened and perfectly preserved.

He picked up the flower and looked at it for a moment, Alyce's last words resounding in his thoughts. He knew everything there was to know about moonlilies, of course: the mechanism of their life cycle, their affinity for pyreflies, how building over the Moonflow had pushed them nearly to extinction. But he'd never seen a real one before.

"I will consider it," he said to the empty room before setting the dried flower on the ticket and returning to his reading.

---

It is a thousand years later, although Maechen does not always remember this. He knows that he is very old, and that he has seen many things, but he can no longer be certain which stories he is recounting from his own memories and which he read in a book, or learned from travelers on the road. But one thing he always remembers: the Great Library at Bevelle. Whenever he steps through the door and into its hallowed halls, he takes a deep breath, reveling in the scent of books, dust, mold -- the scent of knowledge. It never fails to fill him with pleasure to look up the endlessly tall shelves and marvel at the worlds they contain.

No one has ever tried to deny Maechen access to the library, but it is not a secret that the maesters of Yevon do not encourage visitors. So it is a surprise to him when, on his first visit after the final defeat of Sin, the stacks are bustling with people -- priests, nuns, acolytes, even a few warrior monks. He pauses in the doorway to marvel at the hum of activity, his gaze falling on a reading table, full of researchers, flipping through books and watching spheres.

"Spira's true history, open to anyone who cares to look," he murmurs to himself. And with a smile, he moves to join them. Perhaps here he will find his kindred spirits at last, ready to rediscover the past and help spread knowledge throughout the world.

This just might be the best thing ever

owlmoose@gmail.com — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:41:37 GMT

binsybaby suggests some names for kick-ass movies about girls, such as "Sisterhood of the Traveling MONSTER TRUCK ON FIRE" and "Bridget Jones's Diary OF COMPLEX TIME MACHINE BLUEPRINTS". I know I'd see that last one! There are many more, in the post and in the comments, so make sure to read the threads. Some of the commenters make suggestions in the other direction, too, like "Die Hard AND THEN GET A PEDICURE" and "Batman Returns FROM THE ORCHID EXHIBIT".

Thanks to Jed for the link; if you don't have time to read all of the comments, he's posted some of his favorites here.

Deep thoughts on a Saturday night

owlmoose@gmail.com — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 08:02:43 GMT

One of the side effects of getting poison oak all over my hands is that it's been hard to write much. (Fortunately, the worst of it is now past, although I still get struck by itchy fits from time to time. But they're more "let me slough off this dead skin" and less "oh my god I don't remember what it feels like not to be one giant itchy spot", so it's a lot easier to deal with now. Anyway.) So I've been spending more time reading, and contemplating, and following conversations all over the Internet (and playing Bubble Spinner, but we won't talk about that part), and for various reasons the topics that've been consuming most of my reading and thinking time lately are related to feminist issues.

Partly that's because I've just finished reading Yes Means Yes (I have a full review on Goodreads, here), which is a collection of essays about rape, women's sexuality, and different models of consent. And it was in the context of having these ideas rattling around in my brain that I read this call to arms by cereta, in which she exhorts men to stand up and do their part to help end rape culture. I'm slowly working my way through the comment threads, although last I checked it was up to 16 pages, so there's no way I'll be able to read them all. But I definitely recommend going as far as you can; people are sharing some incredible stories, good and awful alike, and there are some fantastic (and sometimes frustrating) discussions about being an ally, and consent, and victim blaming.

It's that last one that really gets me thinking. Just how steeped our culture is in blaming the victim for cases of rape and sexual assault is something that I've only really understood within the last couple of years. I knew, of course, that our society will automatically try to get any woman who is sexually assaulted to take the blame upon herself -- what was she wearing, did she flirt with him, did she say yes and then change her mind, etc. etc. etc. It's a story we've all heard a thousand times. But it happens on the other side of the equation, too, because whenever we talk about rape prevention, our entire focus is on how women should protect themselves. Don't go out alone, don't drink too much, don't be alone with a strange man (never mind that most women are assaulted by someone they know), don't be "too wild", carry mace/a whistle/keys, learn self-defense. Every one of these suggestions places the burden of not "getting raped" on women, and many of them force women into tiny boxes of "appropriate" sexual expression. Want to wear that skimpy outfit, or go out drinking with your friends, or hook up with a guy you barely know? Well, go ahead, but don't say we didn't warn you.

(Not that I'm trying to claim that these are necessarily smart things to do. But does our society tell a man not to go out drinking because he might be an easier target for a mugger? Does society warn him against one-night-stands because he might get assaulted? And do we then turn around and blame him if anything happens to him? There are exceptions, of course, but as a rule I would say no. We don't. This is part of what equality means: women should have the same opportunity as men to do crazy things, stupid things. Fun things -- one of the essays in Yes Means Yes, by Jaclyn Friedman, is a manifesto on the joys of cutting loose and being wild, and on our right to experience them, and I found it one of the most compelling in the book.)

But this method of rape prevention leaves out one factor completely: the rapist. Oh yeah, that guy. (And yes, I do know that not all rapists are male and not all rape victims are female. But looking at the odds, those are good ones to play. Also, my point is really more about rape culture than about individual victims and perpetrators, and in our society, rapists are gendered male/aggressive and victims are gendered female/passive, regardless of the details of any particular case.) What does he have to do with anything?

Plenty, I'd say. Because if there were no rapists, no one would ever be raped. And it wouldn't matter what they were wearing, where they went, what they drank, what they said. Complete prevention, full stop. Put it that way, and it sounds almost ridiculously simple. So why don't we have books and courses and all of that to teach men how not to be rapists, how not to commit sexual assault, how to recognize consent and take "no" for an answer, how to stand up to other men who are about to cross the line?

I could come up with all sorts of reasons why we as a society haven't gone this route, mostly relating to male privilege. But right now, I'd rather just leave the question open and out there, in all its simplicity. Seriously. Why not?

Eeek!

owlmoose@gmail.com — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:53:04 GMT

Even if you aren't normally a fan of LOLcats, you have to see this one.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Hooray!

owlmoose@gmail.com — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 18:17:37 GMT

It's another round of ff_exchange!!

Everyone come play! The more, the merrier. :)

Now, to contemplate my sign-up. The big question is, do I take the FFXII plunge, or no?

As expected

owlmoose@gmail.com — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:15:41 GMT

Edit: This brief and clear analysis of the court case is very important, and you should all read it.

The CA Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, but the existing marriages will be allowed to stand.

This is pretty much what everyone was expecting and planning for, so I'm not crushed, but I am definitely disappointed.

On the other hand, since Proposition 8 was legal, that means it can be repealed by a simple proposition as well, right? So onward to 2010 (or 2012, depending on what they decide to do). And more lawsuits, I'm sure. More once substantial reactions start coming down.

Alphabet fic meme

owlmoose@gmail.com — Mon, 25 May 2009 07:36:59 GMT

Discovered by following links off metafandom. I probably shouldn't start new fic memes when I have at least two I haven't finished yet, but I couldn't resist this one.

Alphabet Ficbits
1. Pick a letter and a corresponding word or expression.
2. Pick a fandom I can write and a character or pairing.
3. I will write a drabble/ficlet for the prompt.

Fandoms
Most comfortable with FFX and FFX-2, of course, but I'll be bold and say any fandom listed in my interests is fair game.

Everyone can start with up to two requests, and once I've filled one you can ask for another if there are still spots in the queue. Hopefully this will keep me from sitting on this forever, as I have been known to do. Oops.

A:
B: Adventure - Baralai/Gippal (requested by wildejoy)
C: Children/Childhood - FFIV cast (requested by first_seventhe)
D:
E:
F:
G:
H: ~~Herbs - Maechen/books (requested by muggy_mountain)~~ - Done!
I:
J:
K:
L:
M:
N:
O:
P: Pain - YRP (requested by first_seventhe)
Q:
R:
S: Solid - Paine/Nooj (requested by lassarina)
T:
U:
V:
W: ~~Wonder - Maechen/books (requested by muggy_mountain)~~ - Done!
X:
Y:
Z:

Yet another Rome post

owlmoose@gmail.com — Sun, 24 May 2009 07:40:13 GMT

I always meant to finish up my Rome report a lot sooner, so I wouldn't forget anything, but then life got the better me. I'll pick up where I left off, with Thursday morning, and apologize for any gaps of memory.

So Thursday started off with a wander around Trastevere, the neighborhood on the other side of the Tiber. It's one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city -- most of the buildings are medieval, and the streets are even narrower and more winding than in the rest of Rome. Have I mentioned that yet? Like most ancient European cities, Rome is not built on a grid at all, with streets that wind around and meet at odd angles. The large arteries are paved, but most of the small streets are still covered in cobblestones, which made walking on them in the rain an adventure. Lots of women walk around Rome in heels, and I have no idea how they manage. As it was, my ankles were pretty tired by the time we left.

We started by crossing the Ponte Fabricio, the oldest bridge in Rome, to Tiber Island, which is home to a hospital and a small church. Then we walked down one of those long narrow streets to the Piazza della Santa Maria in Trastevere, home to the basilica of the same name, which is known for its 13th century mosaics by Cavallini, early examples of perspective in artwork. We started by walking into the church, only to discover that we had accidentally wandered into a funeral. Pretty much all of the churches in Rome that you can visit are working churches, and they all have signs requesting that tourists not come in during services, but there had been no sign posted outside. We made a quick exit, at which point we noticed the small hearse sitting in the piazza. Oops. So we hung out on the steps of the fountain for about ten minutes and went back inside when the coast was clear. Besides the mosaics, I thought the highlight of the church was the row of columns along the nave. If you look closely at the capitals, you can see that none of them match -- the carvings are different, and they're a mixture of Ionic and Corinthian. The reason? The columns were stolen from various Roman temples around the town!

After we'd finished with the church, we made an attempt to visit the Villa Farnesina, recommended for its influential architecture and frescos, but I misread the map and we overshot it, and by the time we got back, it was only a few minutes from closing for the day -- most museums, churches, and shops in Rome close for lunch from 1pm or so until the late afternoon, and this particular villa didn't have afternoon hours. And we were hot and hungry and a little stressed out, so we skipped rushing through it in favor of finding some lunch. So we found a little restaurant in the Piazza di San Giovanni della Malva and faced our first menu with no English on it. Our waitress spoke a little English, and between that and my "menu Italian", I was able to make enough guesses to acquire us cariofi alla romana (Roman-style artichoke, which is served cold with a white wine sauce, garlic, and mint, which was a surprising combination), pasta with red pepper sauce for T, and a really delicious gnocchi dish for myself. After lunch, we made our daily afternoon pilgrimage back to the hotel room, to rest a bit and plan out our second walking tour of the day: the Baroque churches of Centro Storico.

T and I are both big fans of cities and architecture, but T's tastes tend distinctly toward more modern time periods. So, while he can appreciate the ancient ruins and medieval basilicas and Renaissance churches that surrounded us, he was most interested in the Baroque. Fortunately, there's a ton of classic Baroque architecture, paintings, and sculpture in Rome. The tour suggested by our guidebook started with Sant' Ignazio, which is best known as the home of a really spectacular trompe l'oil ceiling by Andrea Pozzo. Pictures really, really do not do it justice. It's the image of saints and many others, including personifications of continents and countries, ascending to heaven, and the effect is highly realistic -- although before I double-checked the guidebook, it looked to me as though the figures were falling out of the ceiling rather than floating upwards! There's also a dome that's entirely fake. The surface is flat, and the image of a dome is painted in. You can see it on the left-hand side of the photograph linked above.

And then things started to get a little wonky, as the guidebook took us to several churches that didn't conform to the same opening hours that the guidebook thought they ought to. There was a cute little church called Santa Maria della Pace, and although we weren't able to get into the sanctuary, the interior courtyard, which is by Bramante, was open, so we checked that out. Also inside was a museum dedicated to Bramante, but we decided we weren't that interested in the man, so instead we made our way back to the Piazza Navonna and the interior of Sant'Agnese in Agone, which has the distinction of being decorated with friezes instead of frescos. It was a much smaller space than I'd expected from the outside, and really quite beautiful. One of the more peaceful churches we visited in Rome, I thought. When we'd finished there, we noticed that the sun was out and we were near the Pantheon, so I decided that I needed a look at the interior with the sun shining through the oculus. So we went, and it was if anything even more crowded than before, but I got a pretty cool picture of a snippet of sky, and it was totally worth it.

We walked past several more churches, saw the work of several more masters -- by late afternoon of the fourth day in Rome, it all starts to blur together a little bit. Finally, at the end of it all, we were back on the Tiber, where T settled in for sunset (no pics posted anywhere yet, alas). Dinner was at a Roman restaurant on the Piazza Farnese, and then it was time for bed.

The next day, Friday, was May 1st. Which, as it turns out, is a major holiday in Rome, and pretty much the rest of Europe. One of those holidays the guidebooks always advise you to avoid, because everything will be closed. Which we didn't realize until after we'd bought our plane tickets and made hotel reservations. Oops. Fortunately, a few days earlier I had called the Galleria Borghese to make a reservation for Thursday; the agent told me that Thursday was sold out, but did we want to come on Friday? After ascertaining that the museum was, indeed, open on Friday, I jumped on the opportunity to settle our holiday plans, and we bought the tickets.

On our way, we stopped by San Luigi dei Francesi, one of the churches we had tried and failed to visit the day before. The church is undergoing renovations, so the exterior was totally encased in plywood, but the real attraction was inside: one of the chapels is decorated with paintings by Caravaggio, who is one of T's favorite painters, and it was totally worth going back. "The Calling of St. Matthew", in particular, is rightly regarded as a masterpiece. Caravaggio plays some fascinating tricks with light and darkness and composition.

Then we hopped on the little bus and went up to Villa Borghese, arriving about half an hour before our noon reservation. The Villa is a huge country estate that's been turned into a park with a small zoo and several museums, including what may be the strictest museum I've ever attended: the Museo Borghese. Reservations are a necessity, because they strictly regulate the number of people who can come in, something like 300 people at a time, and you only get a two hour block to visit the museum. Also, all bags and cameras must be checked, so I have no pictures of the fabulous artwork to be found inside. But overall, I found it made for a much more pleasant experience than, say, the Vatican -- you weren't pressed into crowds, or tripping over people, or rushed past things before you could look at them, and it was easy to go back and look again at something that you missed. The collection was, as I've said, amazing; the building was originally built to house the private collection of the Borghese family (including Camillo Borghese, Napoleon's brother-in-law), and many more masterworks have been acquired since. There was a whole room of Caravaggios, and several classic sculptures by Bernini, all of which were really neat to examine at close range. But I think our favorite was the Egyptian Room, which was designed to hold ancient Egyptian artwork. The marble and wood inlays were designed to resemble hieroglyphics; although it was clear they didn't mean anything, they were beautifully designed. I wish I could find a picture to show you all.

We finished in about an hour and a half. Then, after almost half an hour of futilely waiting for a bus, we found a cab driver to take us to San Carlo de Quattro Fontana, and this is where I'll leave off for tonight. More to come.

This is the life

owlmoose@gmail.com — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:15:52 GMT

I worked a six-day week back in April, so I took today off and am now basking in the glory of a four-day weekend with almost nothing planned. T is going to a beach-clean/photo shoot on Sunday, and I might come along, but otherwise I envision a lot of kicking back. I already spent a nice morning with three of my favorite things: leftover pizza for breakfast, my kitties, and Deep Space Nine on DVD. The rest of the day will likely feature a pedicure (it's summer, time to give my toes more regular help) and some writing time in Panera, but it's nice not to have to decide yet.

Cat picture time!

owlmoose@gmail.com — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:10:46 GMT

There's only one today, and it's not even my cat, but it was too adorable not to share. This is my MiL's cat, Peaches, on a rare foray into the house. Looks like she discovered the cat that's allowed to live inside...

I keep meaning to post about this and forgetting

owlmoose@gmail.com — Thu, 21 May 2009 06:14:55 GMT

I have an account on Dreamwidth: owlmoose

At this point it's mostly a placeholder -- I don't plan to import my LJ content, and I'm still deciding whether to cross-post, but I wanted to let you all know that it's there.

I have a couple of invite codes if anyone needs them. Just drop me an email.

If your reaction to this post is "What the heck is Dreamwidth?", the short answer is that it's a new LJ clone, but it's a fork of the code rather than just a straight copy, so they've cleaned up some things and added some features -- a few now, more promised in the future. The long answer is here.

Book review and warning

owlmoose@gmail.com — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:45:12 GMT

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

My review

Rating: 2 of 5 stars

Dear Jodi Picoult: please give the font changes between chapters a rest, it makes your books tiring to read. Thank you.

Otherwise, this book was entertaining, thought-provoking, and engaging, and I would have given three stars or maybe even four, until the ending, which made me so furious that I wanted to throw the book out the window. And I was on an airplane at the time.

The story of a family with a terminally ill child -- their daughter Kate has leukemia, and based on hints dropped by their doctor, they decide to have another child who is genetically engineered to be a perfect donor match. Initially, the plan is only to use the baby's umbilical cord blood to generate stem cells for Kate. But as Kate's condition deteriorates, the donor child, Anna, is asked to give more and more. The story opens as Anna, age 13, files for medical emancipation so that her parents can't compel her to donate a kidney to Kate. As the case and the family's story unfolds, Picoult raises all kinds of complicated issues about medical intervention, the rights of children to refuse medical treatment, whether parents are capable of making unbiased decisions about their children's health, etc. Eventually we discover that Anna is not the only one tired of constant medical intervention, which throws everything we thought we knew about the family into disarray, and I was really looking forward to seeing how Picoult resolved it.

She didn't.

Instead, in an infuriating deus ex machina move, Anna is rendered brain dead by a car accident within hours of receiving her medical emancipation. Kate gets a new kidney and, naturally, makes a miraculous recovery. This turn of events not only robs Anna of her opportunity to finally make her own choice, it also robs *Kate* of her choice to refuse any further treatment. It's almost as though Picoult saw the implications of the themes she was exploring, couldn't face them, and made a U-turn at the last minute.

It was so frustrating that I think this is likely the last book by Jodi Picoult I will ever read. Anyone else read it, and have a similarly strong reaction? Does she do this kind of thing in every book, or just the two I managed to finish?

Now that I've seen the new Star Trek movie twice in three days...

owlmoose@gmail.com — Wed, 13 May 2009 07:41:54 GMT

I think it's safe to say that I liked it.

I first saw it with T on Sunday, who isn't really a Star Trek person but was sucked in by the trailers, and today I was with amybang, who is a bigger Trek fan than I am, and all three of us enjoyed it. As I said to both of them, if nothing else, it's so nice to have actually *good* new Star Trek content again, for the first time since DS9 ended (or since "Star Trek: First Contact", depending on what you mean by new). More action-oriented than most recent Trek, but since all the action advanced the characterization, the plot, or both (although it was more plot than character driven), that worked for me.

Bear in mind that I am definitely a Next Gen/DS9 Trekker -- I've maybe seen a dozen episodes of TOS, so most of my knowledge of those characters is from the movies (2-4 and 6). So I recognize that a die-hard fan of the original cast might have different impressions. But for me, it was pretty much exactly what I was looking for.

The Good: Casting. I thought pretty much all the re-casted actors were just about perfect. All the actors managed to walk that line of recreating the characters we know while still inhabiting them in a new way. The new Kirk is a bit brasher and more reckless than the old, but given the changes in his past, that makes sense. Spock was less controlled, showed more visible emotion, although most of his flashes of emotion came under extreme duress -- like Old Spock says, his homeworld was destroyed and his mother died before his eyes, so of course his emotions are running closer to the surface and are probably harder for him to suppress. But my favorite, hands down, was McCoy. What a perfect rendition of the character. Love him.

Also, I really like the way they handled the reboot: by setting this story in an alternate reality. So the "original" reality still exists on its old timeline and they can use the old continuity if they want, but there's now a whole new continuity for them to play with without worrying that they'll contradict something that came before. I kept expecting them to fix the timeline, bring Vulcan back, etc., but I'm glad they didn't. And I understand that this group is under contract for two more movies, so I hope we get the chance to see what they do with it.

The Not-So-Good: The fact that Uhura only really gets to do two things: a) translate a key transmission that is vital to advancing the plot... off screen, so we don't actually get to see her awesome skills in action, just hear her bragging about them and b) make out with Spock. I am really not sure how I feel about this Uhura/Spock thing. One the one hand, I do like that Kirk didn't get the girl -- especially since the girl was so determined to blow him off. I'm definitely glad not to have seen a classic "I hate you means I love you" turnaround. But I'm not at all convinced that it's in character for Spock to date a student (and I do think we were meant to assume that the two of them were together while Uhura was at the Academy), and I'm unsure about the choice to put the only significant female character into a relationship with one of her commanding officers. As long as it doesn't reduce her to "Spock's girlfriend" in future films, I guess I'm okay with it in theory, but it makes me nervous.

The WTF?: The Federation already knows that the Romulans and Vulcans are related? I thought that was a huge reveal in a TOS episode, which would have been a lot later on the timeline. Also, there is no way that Kirk's mother should have been on that ship -- families weren't on starships until the Next Gen era, and you can't hand-wave that one by claiming the changes to the timeline. Finally, I am amused that they sidestepped the whole "what do Klingons look like" question by not having any in the movie. A Star Trek movie without Klingons? What is this world coming to?

But if those are my biggest nitpicks, I'd say the mythology holds together pretty well. The science is another story, but who expects Star Trek to have coherent science? By this point, technobabble is as much a part of the series as the characters, so that doesn't bother me at all.

Long story short: two thumbs up, way up. And one of those is T's, and he's picky, so there you go.

Rome if you want to

owlmoose@gmail.com — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:49:25 GMT

When we left our heroes, they were chilling out in the Piazza Farnese with coffee and pastries. When we had finished, we went back to the hotel room for our afternoon nap and to get ready for the evening. This was a feature of most days on the trip -- we'd get up just in time to make the hotel breakfast, go out for the morning and afternoon, have lunch on the road, then return to the hotel to decide where to spend our night and sometimes nap, depending on how tired we were. On this day (Tuesday, our second day in Rome), we decided to hop on the little electric bus that ran through the Campo dei Fiori and head up to Trevi Fountain.

I liked Trevi Fountain a lot better than I expected to. We mostly went there because it's close, and a classic tourist spot, not because we'd heard it was a must see. But it was cool: the fountain is right next to a building, and the statues look like they were hewn out of the marble that clads it. The place was overrun with tourists, of course, but I found it more endearing here than at the Vatican, maybe because it was still pretty easy to find a place to sit down and watch. As with many other places in Rome, it was also fun to watch the watchers.

Afterwards, we had dinner in a nearby restaurant -- my first pizza in Rome, which was quite tasty; the crust is thin, but it's wood-oven crispy thin, not New York falling-out-of-my-hands thin, which I prefer. Then we made our way back home on the bus (you can probably buy bus tickets in other places in Rome, but for this particular trip, I ended up buying the tickets in a bar!), picked up our second gelato snack of the day, and then went to bed.

Gelato, by the way, is a way of life in Rome. It seemed like everywhere we looked, someone had a cone or cup in their hand, and there's a gelateria on almost every block. We managed to hold ourselves to once a day most days, but it was a challenge. If you've never had gelato, it's so worth trying -- like ice cream, but denser and richer, and such an array of flavors. Nocciola (hazelnut) is a classic, and really good, especially combined with chocolate; my other favorites were noci (walnut) and frutti di bosco (literally "forest fruits", in practice a wildberry flavor). One of the best parts of Italy. I wonder if I can find frutti di bosco gelato in the states?

Anyway, this brings us to Wednedsay, or ancient Rome day. Our first stop was Trajan's Forum, which was on our way from the hotel to the Colosseum; we walked around a little bit and looked at the ancient marketplace across the street, and then made our way to the Colosseum. We had purchased Roma Passes in advance, and they pretty much paid for themselves here: once you get through security (the Vatican had this, too; you had to walk through a metal detector and put your bag through an x-ray machine), there's a separate line for Roma Pass holders. And those suckers are long; I figure having the passes saved us at least half an hour, maybe longer.

So we breezed into the Colosseum, walked up a lot of steps, and found ourselves in an exhibition about the building: its history, the spectators and their past-times during the games (including carving graffiti on the walls and dicing. Definitely worth going inside; I enjoyed getting a close look at the structure and trying to figure out where everything might have been when it was a working stadium. And there were some fantastic views of the Forum through the archways. We probably spent a couple of hours wandering around. Afterwards, we grabbed lunch from a nearby sandwich cart, then went over to the Forum and walked around there. There's a ton to see in the Forum: temples, civic buildings, monuments. It was basically the civic center of ancient Rome; it fell into disuse, then disrepair, and people started building over it despite various excavations. It was finally cleared out in the 20th century, and now it stands as the largest collection of ruins in one place in the city, maybe anywhere in the former Roman Empire. Although it was hot and sunny and tiring, I really enjoyed my ramble through there, looking at the remains and picturing what it might have been like in its heyday. Maybe my favorite part of it was all the architectural litter: the random column capitals and bits of friezes and other building fragments scattered everywhere. Any one of them could be the centerpiece of a museum of ancient history; here, they're used as benches. It's easy to forget how new everything in America is. I always feel awed to be surrounded by the ancient world, especially in its natural habitat.

Our next stop was The Campidoglio. Afterwards, we made our way back to the hotel room. On the way, we walked through the Ghetto -- named in the older sense of "Jewish quarter", not the more modern "run-down neighborhood" -- and saw a camera crew filming in the Piazza Mattei. The plaza was filled with light reflectors and a tech stood in the Tortoise Fountain, splashing water on it to make it shiny. T tried to get more snaps, but the crew chased him away! Anyway, after another snack, this one at a caffe in the Piazza Santa Barbara, we got the night gear from the hotel room and went back to Campidoglio for the sunset. This was one of the best sunsets we had: beautiful clouds, a nice view over the city. You also get great views of the Forum from the back, and the structures there catch the light of sunset really nicely. Once the sun was down, we headed back to the Colosseum, because this was the one structure in Rome that T knew for sure that he wanted to shoot at night. Once that was finished, we found ourselves some dinner, and I had possibly the best pasta of the trip: penne alla vodka with pancetta. Yum yum yum. Our walk home took us back past the Trajan Forum, which was nicely spot-lit for the evening.

Morning and evening, the third day. I'll pick up again with Thursday, the fourth day, which featured wanderings through Trastavere and our attempt to tour as many Baroque churches as we could fit into an afternoon, partially thwarted by our guidebook. Stay tuned!

Home

owlmoose@gmail.com — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:45:05 GMT

Today was Northern California May Day, at an alumna's gorgeous home up in the Sonoma Valley. The event itself was really enjoyable -- great to see lots of folks I hadn't seen in awhile; why do I keep letting myself fall out of the BMC loop? -- and on the drive home, I found myself getting nostalgic for Sonoma County: the green hills just starting to shade into gold, fields of grapes stretching away from gently curving highways. I don't expect I'll ever live up in Santa Rosa or Sonoma County again, but there's a way in which it still feels like home to me, and sometimes I miss it.

And then an hour or so later, driving down 101, I came out of the rainbow tunnels to the view of the Golden Gate bridge and the city spread out before me, and the sight of it brought a goofy huge grin to my face, as it so often does. Sonoma County may always be my old home, but San Francisco is where the heart is.

Pictures!

owlmoose@gmail.com — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:06:43 GMT

Thanks to the wonders of jetlag, I finished my gallery of Rome pictures this morning.

I fully intend to finish writing up the trip, with pictures included, but if you just want to browse the highlights, now you can!

Quick meme break

owlmoose@gmail.com — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:41:33 GMT

I've done this one before, but, well, I'm doing it again. Ganked from lassarina.

The Rules:
1. Reply to this post with 'Icons!', and I will pick five of your icons.
2. Make a post (including the meme info) and talk about the icons I chose.
3. Other people can then comment to you and make their own posts.
4. This will - allegedly - create a never-ending cycle of icon glee.

BMC - Cloisters: An old photo of the Cloisters, the interior courtyard of Thomas Hall at my alma mater, Bryn Mawr College. Hanging out there just added to the "we all live in a castle" vibe that Bryn Mawr often gives off. One of my oldest icons; I use it for posts about BMC, higher learning, and architecture.

quote - flamethrower: I believe the quote comes from a Discworld novel (a series that I've read a few books from and always mean to read more but keep not getting around to it; there are just so many of them). Ganked from book_icons a long time ago, because a) it so perfectly encapsulates the frustrations that go along with life in the modern world and b) it made me laugh. Often used in conjunction with the "grr argh" tag.

quote - eliot hollow men: Also found on book_icons, which I highly recommend as a source of icons. "The Hollow Men" is one of my favorite poems, and I find the juxtaposition of colors, text, and font to work really well together. I use it kind of randomly -- moody posts, thoughtful posts, the occasional post related to poetry.

FFX - lulu and shiva: One of my favorite icons by Dagas, from a series she made pairing all the members of Yuna's party with an aeon. I think this combination is one of the most apt, and I love the imagery of it: Lulu the Ice Queen, Shiva the Ice Goddess.

book - key: Picked up during an icon-shopping spree when I realized that I only had two book/reading related icons. I like the idea of reading and words as the key to knowledge. Sometimes I also use it for posts about writing.