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Update: 12th March 2006. I'm in a "Let's meet new people!" groove these days, so please, by all means, if you're not scared off by the crazy, drop me a line! :)

Okay, so after weeks of interruptions and constant nitpicking, I'm finally through with that goddamn chapter-translation.

This was first translated for my darling untitledno8, and then I decided that since Bernard Werber's books had never been published in English (apart from the Ants trilogy, ages ago), I might as well use that opportunity to ask him why exactly his publishing house had given up on abroad sales.

All that to say that any and all constructive criticism is most welcome. I haven't sent it to him yet, and would like to check, first, that I haven't made any grammar error or left any weird-sounding segment.

As it turns out, this is taken from one of my favourite books. A very brief summary of said book, The Thanatonauts, would be thus: a team of scientists decides to explore death, since it is about the only thing left to explore. They devise complicated machinery to allow them to die for short periods of time, and draft the map of the afterlife, little by little. Which will in turn change life on earth as people learn more and more about what is waiting for them on the other side.

This is one of the later chapters, the transcription of a heavenly judgement (the book, however, isn't centered on any one faith, instead quoting from just about every religious book ever written, and showing just how many similarities can be found from one faith to the other) bestowed on a freshly deceased soul. All souls go through life again and again until they have become wise enough to stop.

It's full of humour, and personally gives me as much hope for the "future" as Terry Pratchett's Death.

But be warned, it might also trigger some uncomfortable feelings, depending on your background. Ectoplasm Donahue is judged on his past actions and then asked to choose his next life, which, because he's been a shmuck in his previous life, will not be rosy. Almost all the future parents he is presented with are abusive in some way. And he's also asked to choose his next death.

But well, despite the dark undertones, I find this to be an inspiring, fun, spirit-lifting read. Especially these days, when my life could be better, I cling to it and amuse myself to hope that maybe, just maybe, I've chosen this life, and all the crappy moments in it are just the prelude to better years. :)

~"~"~"~"~

Book: The Thanatonauts
Author: Bernard Werber
Chapter: Interview with a mortal
Translator: many_miles_away, in an utterly unofficial capacity.

Warnings: mentions of death (obviously), religion, abusive parents, suicide...

( INTERVIEW WITH A MORTAL )

Yeah I know I just went and skipped CoS and PoA (we didn't watch GoF as we'd seen it really recently, but I'll rewatch it on my own), but truth be told, there wasn't much to say about those movies that I haven't said before. Oh alright, alright, I'll do a small summary.



CoS still makes me crack up because it's shot out of sequence and therefore the actors (Tom Felton in particular) seem to sprout up or shrink from one scene to the other. Ginny was, as expected, much less annoying than I remembered, even though she hasn't much screen time. Aragog still scares me shitless. I'm still utterly in love with Tom Riddle. And the final fight against the basilisk still annoys me to no end because that's not what happens but I guess having Harry kill the beast two seconds after it's out by a stroke of sheer luck (and crying for help the whole time, as any sane 12-year-old boy would do in such a situation) wasn't as impressive on screen. *huffs*

And the end is as stupid as ever, probably the worst HP-ending (and that's saying a lot, isn't it now?). I get so mad every time the students stand up to applaud Hagrid. What the heck, I ask, what the heck? Utter bollocks.

I think it is time for me to mention that I've been reading Julie & Julia for the past few days, which explains my sudden foul-mouth. Apparently that's something that can rub off on people, who would have thought? Anyway, I apologize if all the expletives are grating on anybody's nerves.




As for PoA, I still love it to pieces, even though it's confusing as heck and I still can't understand what possessed them to basically discard two thirds of the book and not explain anything at all, as if everybody had read it before coming into the theater. I remember the look of utter confusion my sister in law threw me once the lights went back on, two billion questions coming out of her mouth and me having to basically re-tell the entire story to her so she could understand what she had just been shown.

( Many more 'still's behind the cut. )




Which brings us...to Order of the Phoenix, since as I mentioned earlier we've skipped GoF.

I actually liked it loads more than I had the first (and second? Had I seen it twice before?) time around. The first time I'd been underwhelmed, which is saying a lot considering how sinfully boring the book is, but this time I could see all the fun bits for what they are, and somewhat glaze over the mistakes (at least the action is a little easier to understand than in PoA).

( Much much more behind the cut (no 'still's, though, but a fic-pitch). )


And that's it! We watched Half-Blood Prince this afternoon, but I felt so much RAGE at almost everything in it that I will have to watch it again before I can write up a coherent review that isn't just "AaaaaaahwhatdidtheydowhatdidtheyDOOOOOO???!!!".

To finish this post (and go back to Criminal Minds at last), a little bonus!Hermione.

We were at Laurent and Charlotte's last Sunday, so I borrowed the entire collection, and we watched PS yesterday evening. We saw GoF and OotP not long ago, but I hadn't seen the first ones in years. Actually, I don't think I'd watched either PS or CoS a single time since PoA had come out, since that one had brought the HP movies into a whole new world and made the two first opuses to look like children's drawings.



I don't know if it's because it had been so long, or because I'm less invested, but I actually really enjoyed watching it again. The acting, while not exactly good, was much less irritating than I remembered (it's easier to forgive bad-acting in 10-year-old kids than in 18-year-olds), and Emma was so adorable I could easily overlook her crazy enunciation-fetish. Actually, they all looked absolutely adorable. It was so strange, seeing those ickle kids, knowing the adults into which they've grown. Harry, Ron, Neville, Seamus...they all looked like babies. And Malfoy! Gosh, he really lost out when he grew up, if you ask me; he was ten thousand times cuter when he was 11 than he's now. Oh, and lil' Ginny! I remembered her as awkward and rather like an ugly little duck (don't ask me why), but she looked absolutely darling.

There were also those characters which, to the best of my knowledge, we never got to see again. ( This isn't making me feel any younger, you know... )

Anyway, time to go watch CoS! I wonder if Ginny will annoy me as much as she did almost ten years ago. Probably not. And Lockhart! I still wish someone like Hugh Grant or Hugh Jackman had played him, but it ought to be fun nevertheless.

So I've had Emma Watson's official page opened for three days, ever since I looked for inspiration re:writing, and today I decided to actually browse through the pictures (an official page chock-full of pictures, what has the world gone to?!) (of course you can't just right-click and save them, but the source file will give you all the links you need), and started reading articles, something which I almost never do (I've had a Première with Natalie Portman on the cover sitting on my bedside table for almost six months and I still haven't unwrapped it).

And once I started reading I just couldn't stop. I don't know what I expected her to be, since I've never watched interviews or anything of the like, but considering the HP hype and how young she still is, I wouldn't have been too surprised if she'd turned out to be a little bit of an air-head or a party fiend.

On the contrary, she's mature, endearing, funny, and down-to-earth.

After a while I realized the two interviews I'd been reading had been made...three years ago, and thought that maybe things had changed between then and now. You never know, teenagers change so fast and famous teenagers change faste of all. So I tried to find the latest interviews she'd given, and lo, she's actually in this month's Vanity Fair UK issue (unless it's raining cats and dogs I'm definitely walking all the way to WHSmith tomorrow to see if they still/already have it).

Well, she hasn't changed. *beams* And the interviewers use the same words as three years ago. "Polite", "charming", "self-deprecating", "shy", "delightful". Even accounting for the glossing over of interviewers, that's still a really nice picture. It warms my heart, to see that some teen actors can escape unscathed from the grips of Hollywood. She's going to college, too, which of course reminds me of lovely Natalie (and Jodie Foster, incidentally), and while I'd be delighted to see her grown-up in something which doesn't involve magic wands and sorting hats, it's nice that she's contemplating living a "normal" life. Although, as she says, she wonders if people would think she had failed, if she decided to turn her back on acting.


Highlights of the handful of interviews I've read, because it's just too adorable (and I lovelovelove what she says about sport).



'I remember after the first ten minutes of the first film my dad turning to me and saying "Emma darling, I really think you should breathe now."'

'I am always texting Dan and Rupert when we are not working. And we are always swapping girl and boy advice when we're together. It's quite funny -- I am like, "Oh, I have got this text from a boy, what on earth do I say? What does this translate to in boy language? I don't understand," and they will be like, "Well, this means this." I have got my own personal on-set boy text translators,' she says with a laugh.

When asked, in jest, if she has a glass of wine with her favourite food, she points out that having spent the fist five years of her life in France she had her first watered-down wine when she was about three. When I suggest that such an idea won't go down well in America - where the alcohol age limit is 21 - she is not afraid to offer a forthright opinion. 'What is that about? You can go to war for your country but you can't have a beer to celebrate? It's mad. I much prefer the European way in which alcohol is naturally introduced into family life.'

One thing that annoys her about her female contemporaries is their reluctance - from vanity, she thinks - to continue with sport in their late teens. 'I am such a feminist on this. It drives me nuts when friends say "We can't continue because sport gives you muscles and it's so unattractive, and you get sweaty." For some reason girls seem to think it is unfeminine and they worry about being "pretty". But I feel the most pretty when I come off the pitch after a hockey game and I have got pink cheeks and bright eyes. Sport really makes me feel good about myself.'

And having to run down the hallway in the Hogwarts dining hall and fling her arms around Harry was simply petrifying. 'You cannot imagine as a nine-year-old girl how embarrassing it is even just to hug a boy. You just don't do that.'

(Unlike Hermione, who has a crush on Ron, Emma never had a crush on Rupert, and instead fell for Tom Felton, who plays Malfoy, and would eagerly check her call sheet every morning to see if they had scenes together. But, hey, this was real life. What teenage girl doesn't like the blond bad boy more than the goofy redhead?)

♥♥♥

Now it makes me want to search for Daniel/Rupert interviews.

After re-reading old fics for two days (most of them embarrassingly bad, and some of them, a.k.a Mieko's, still holding their own), and flitting through the last books, all of which got me thoroughly depressed for some reason -- I mean, on the one hand it was "nice" to be depressed about something other than usual, but it felt so bittersweet and really got me down. For a while it felt like I could never write again because it all was in the past, and I could not get out of my head the feeling that the characters had now grown up and I couldn't go back and rewrite their school-years.

That was until yesterday evening, when I decided to browse WeHeartIt for pictures of the cast. And found some amazing Emma Watson pics.....and then found some Bonnie Wright pics and realized she had finally grown up and now looked more like a woman than a little girl, finally, finally looked like I pictured Ginny to be.



And watching her, and watching Emma, made me realize that maybe in the books's timeline they would all be older by now, but the actors were still there, still young, and I could still feel connected to those stories.

I've re-read some of my own stories, of course, but none inspire me as much as La Courbe, as usual. The other ones are probably better written, but they feel foreign now, I don't know if I could get back into the frame of mind I was when I first started writing them.



And as always happens whenever I think about continuing this particular story, my first dreadful instinct is to rewrite what's already written. Last I did that, I improved the first chapters, but never passed the point where I'd stopped the first time around. *facepalm*

And yet, and yet, there are still things to improve (Appendix 1 is almost perfect but for those two minutes leading to the kiss, and I still hate Ginny and Harry's interactions), but what struck me most of all this time is that it just doesn't fit with their 5th year. I wrote it then at the time because Book 6 hadn't been released (hell, when I started it I'm pretty sure book 5 hadn't been released either), but now that I think about the timeline, and about Ginny's character, it just feels...off.

Likewise, the story starts on March 17th just because it had such a sentimental importance to me (and it is only as I am writing this that it finally hits me that this date has become my anniversary date, which sucks. How come I never noticed this before? It's like that day was cut in two...), but it was such a pain in the a.. to have everything start so late in the year. And then I decided to merge it with the events of OotP and it was even more of a nightmare because nothing that happened in cannon would work with my own timeline.

It would be much easier to have it all start near the beginning of the year, and follow (more or less closely, since Voldemort has never been the point of this story) the events of HBP, which makes much more sense with how Ginny's acting, the way the Trio has accepted her as one of them, and would also allow me to make Ron act like an idiot and go snog Lavender (and have Hermione make a fool of herself with whatshispickle at Slughorn's party).

Now my only fear is, like I said, what if I do rewrite everything, and then get stuck just where I got stuck before?

Also, R. has absolutely no understanding of Fanfiction, refuses to learn about it or try and understand its appeal, and cannot acknowledge the concentration that goes with writing/reading it either (which is rich coming from someone who used to be a Dungeon master and knows everything about roleplaying), so I'm expecting many a fight in the upcoming future if I start writing again. He'll probably end up being jealous of the characters, what's more (and be quite right about it, too...thinking about Hermione, Ron and the others these past few days got my heart beating faster and pumping blood more strongly than it has in years) (and I do not mean in a slutty way).

So! Not a huge fan of redirecting everyone to my personal journal (hello, this is my personal journal, you can look around the raaaare public entries, snoop in the tagsexcept no since the interesting ones are friends only, take a seat, sip some champagne), but I haven't found any clean, reliable poll application for FB, so...there it is.

I need to find a name for my new journal, which will host all my graphics/icons/layouts and whatnot. Since I intend to put it on my résumé, it must be poetic/silly but not too poetic/silly. My old icon journal was called "see_legolas_run" (old joke between me and my BFF) -- do I need to mention this is a no-go for the new one?

And as you should know by now, I'm notorious for not being able to reach a decision on my own. So I'm enlisting your help! The list is long, which just proves how desperate I am. As always, most of these words are taken from Emily Dickinson poems, because she's just the most wonderful source of inspiration that ever was. ♥

Sometimes the name might not be "quite it", so you're most welcome to offer variants, would it be just a change in the underscoring. Please, all FB people, do at least leave your name in the box, so I can know who voted.


Poll #1534979 Adventurers of the lost blog name, part I
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

Which name sounds the most fitting? (multiple ticks allowed)

If you come from Facebook, what is your FB name?

Thought of a title that isn't on the list?

The most infuriating thing is that I know exactly what kind of image I want the name to carry, but I can't seem to put it into words. You know those dancing specks of glittering dust you can see in a ray of sunlight in a old dusty room? That's exactly how I feel about my graphics. That kind of ethereal nostalgia. My graphics are akin to virtual scrapbooking (totally ugly for a blog name, don't think I didn't think about it), pinning feelings on a page, but no title seems to encompass that. If any of you, because a lot of you are wonderful poets, has an idea, an inkling, the beginning of a thought....it would be wonderful. If I put this name on my résumé, it's a name that will have to endure for some time, maybe forever. I can't just eeny-mini-miny-mo it.

So far the most inspiring choice for me is the one with framed feelings, except the name doesn't work. Right image, wrong name, ARGH!!! *tears hair out*

Yes, I know that I've already posted most of those songs before (some several times!), but bear with me, this is a Mix-Tape post for Romain. So he can fully appreciate my twisted tastes in music... (you'll notice that in my godlike kindness, I refrained from uploading anything from the Backstreet Boys or more than three songs from Hanson. I really couldn't do much more than that.)

I'm not pretending those are my favourite songs ever, even though some of them are, because that list changes every two days, but I rummaged through my music archives and those are the ones that literally waved to me, because they move me to tears, because they make me laugh, because they make me dance like an idiot, or for whatever other reason one might listen to a song in repeat. I'll make you my actual list of timeless classics another time, but you'll be subjected to it as well, be warned.

And I'm also posting the lyrics when they're important. And I'm forcing myself, with much difficulty, to stop at 22 songs for now (!) because your poor brain is going to implode.


Hanson - Great Divide Come on. I had to start with some Hanson. They're my favourite band in the entire universe, after all, and I don't care what people might think, they're absolutely wonderful to me. So so much love for those guys, it's incredible. Actually if you want to be even more scared, take a looksie at the post just underneath this one, the one with all the Hanson-recs. The links don't work anymore but my comments are still there. ( The lyrics. )

Hanson - A Song to Sing My absolute favourite song of theirs, full stop. ( The lyrics. )

Hanson - In a Little While Yes, I know, it's just a cover from U2. And so? It still gives me shivers. ( The lyrics. )

Ben Jelen - Christine ( The lyrics. )

RJD2 - Ghostwriter

Arrogant Worms - We are the Beaver ( The lyrics. )

Cat Stevens - Wild World ( The lyrics. )

Simon & Garfunkel - Flowers Never Bend (with the rainfall)  The first time I listened to that song tears actually sprung to my eyes and my breath got caught in my throat. You should understand why when you listen to the lyrics.  ( The lyrics. )

Stan Rogers - Watching the Apples Grow

Jude - I Know ( The lyrics. )

Charlotte Church - Crazy Chick

Natalie Merchant - My Skin This one hurts so fucking much. If you had to listen to only one song in this entire list, it'd have to be this one, for a whole slew of reasons. ( The lyrics. )

Les Trois Mousquetaires Petits Chiens (not the real name, but that's how my cousin and I have always called it. I'm sure you've seen it too.)

Ben Folds Five - Song for the Dumped ( The lyrics. )

Leonard Cohen - Woke Up this Morning

Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething Another one of my favourite artists, and the only concert I've ever gone to apart from Simon&Garfunkel. I adore this guy, I've vowed never to miss one of his concerts in Paris. And that particular song? Is exactly how I felt/sometimes still feel. ( The lyrics. )

Dire Straits - Romeo and Juliet

Ella Fitzgerald - Too Darn Hot ( The lyrics. )

Four Seasons - Big Girls Don't Cry

Jane Horrocks - Get Happy ( The lyrics. )

Joe Purdy - Wash Away ( The lyrics. )

Ben Jelen - Setting of the Sun

Okay, let's do this! I don't know whether even one person will download even one song, but I don't much care (although I'll be delighted if people do dl some), because I like talking about Hanson even more than I like talking about myself, which, trust me, is saying a lot. However, mahouseki, I would think it obvious I'm expecting you to actually download the songs, even if you don't listen to them on your own. It'll make it easier for me to tie you down and force you to give them a shot later on ... heh, listening on your own is probably the best option you have, now that I think about it. *smirks* No, but seriously, I've seen what you have on your iTunes playlist. You can give Hanson a shot.

Since, as I said before, I can't for the life of me pick out ten songs, even less classify them, I'll just go with the flow. And will gape at my including songs that I still hated with a passion three months ago, until I started actually listening to them, and realized the small annoyances clearly didn't warrant missing out the awesomness.

Because the great thing with Hanson is that, there's something great in every. single. song, even the sappy ones, or the overly-philosophical ones. Sometimes it's part of the lyrics, sometimes it's the background of the Chorus, sometimes it's just the emotions that Taylor's voice brings up.

For example, the beginning of Save Me is so sappy it's always made me want to barf; but you wait a little, and then there's that classic "after the second chorus" (ASC) Hanson-thing, and you find yourself uplifted (...okay, I find myself uplifted). I'd been skipping Save Me basically ever since I'd gotten the CD, and it's only a couple of months ago, one day when I was too lazy to reach into my pocket and skip the song, that I realized what a fool I'd been.

Likewise, With You In Your Dreams has an amazing ASC. But I won't upload it because if I had to choose one song to share from Middle of Nowhere, it would be Weird. *sighs* Ah, Weird. It's the second song that got me into Hanson (the first being I Will Come To You, which I won't upload because it still breaks my heart and I can never listen to it anymore, it brings back too many memories), and three albums later, it's still one of my favourites, as much for the music as for the lyrics (as for the video which managed to be both completely embarrassing --the part underwater-- and amazingly poetic --the revolving room--).

And really, what always gets me with Hanson, are the lyrics. Oh, they're not all good. Most of them are incredibly sappy, or absurdly philosophical, or annoyingly Christian. But in almost every song, there will be at least one sentence that will just...click. Like pieces of my own life put into words. (let's check how many times I've used Hanson lyrics for icons, layouts, or subject lines, shall we?)

Broken Angel, for example, is quite lame, like something you'd write in highschool. But the ends of the two first couplets?

A high-flyer is what I want to be
Seems they won't let me
Says I'm too small
I don’t feel small at all

I'm gonna go so high
And swoop so low

Own my soul. (well, Zac's voice owns my soul, too, especially in that song, especially on the "I'm gonna go so high" part)

And, to be fair to their sappy songs, most often, even the music is good. A Song to Sing is still for me the perfect example of a perfect sad song, from the music to the emotion to the lyrics. Perfection.

And then there's the plain fun songs, like In the City, Look at You, or, obviously, Man from Milwaukee, silly, happy stuff that has no pretention apart from giving you this irresistible urge to get on your feet and dance like an idiot (preferably while washing the dishes or getting ready for bed).

Although no song makes me want to dance and yell as much as the upbeat, passionate ones. I still can't listen to If Only without anxiously waiting for the pause, so I can snap my fingers at the exact moment Taylor starts singing again. And Smile makes me want to open all my windows wide and take in the sun, even if it's winter outside. You just can't resist those songs.

I don't think I know a single band apart from them that can excell at both the serious, soul-searching songs, and the silly, poppy ones; nowadays they all seem to willingly place themselves in tiny little boxes. Coldplay is philosophical glue. Evanescence emo-crap. And even though I guess most "rock" bands try to balance everything, their songs still sound the same from one track to the other.

But Hanson? They do everything, and you can tell the difference. We did soulful, we did fun, we did upbeat, let's get to...uplifting, for lack of a better word. The songs that not only make me dance, but also lift my very spirits up, no matter how crappy real life is. Not lift me up because the lyrics are so nonsensical (or plain hollow), but because I can feel them ringing and tingling to the tip of my fingers. Those are the songs that I cannot help but smile to. Put me at a funeral, or in front of the Queen of England, and sneak Penny and Me, Get Up and Go, or Dancing in the Wind in my brain? I'll still break into a grin.


So there you go. I think that's a pretty good overview of what Hanson can do. Their new album is (supposedly) coming out at the end of March, and they've already said they had tried an entirely new sound...not that they didn't do this for each and every album they've made. Yeah, yeah, the cynical among you will point out that actually, their albums don't sound that different, but when you've grown up with them, followed them song by song? I can garantee you, you notice the evolution. It's another thing I've always liked about Hanson. They might have started preformated for success, but that's never been their goal, and after Mmmbop, they've never tried to make ready-made teenage-soup. They've always made the kind of music they themselves would like to listen to, and it shows. Their music and their lyrics have grown up along with them, and I honestly can't wait to hear what they'll be coming up with next, in two years, five years, ten years. Because to be honest, it's hard to picture my life without some Hanson music in it.

You know, it's a true blessing that my laptop should be too old to install video games, else nobody would ever hear from me again (or at least not until I was done with Diablo II).

Thank you thank you thank you, Alex, for this poisoned gift! <3


( Don't worry, it's much shorter than my Oblivion recaps. Anyway, I'll be over there, playing. )


Okay, second part's the desert, I'd been hoping it would be the Jungle with the crazy pigmies. Oh god, I remember now, there's also an eclipse in that Act!! Goddamnit, I hate eclipses! It's bad enough when night falls, but it takes forever to get the sun back out in that quest! *trudges towards the first Act Quest*


* At least the background noises have been left unchanged.