I think I managed to find a proxy that lets me log in to DW and post, so here I am (basically, someone Russian once posted a stupid meme on DW about suicide, so our state (and major Internet providers) are thoughtfully protecting us from such nasty things by blocking the DW IP ( Read more... )

Am ded from work. However, will be better next week. I think. I hope.

Somewhere in the depths of my computer I found a song I like a lot, by someone called Ann Percival. However, I can't find any other songs anywhere. Oh well, I'm still in search of music that suits my mood right now.

Sadly, I didn't manage to sleep enough today. Checking the translation I did last night woke me up just enough to not be able to go back to sleep. The nastiest of all states - when you are too tired to do anything useful but can't go and sleep. So I kind of vegetated: cross-stitched and finished watching 'Good Night and Good Luck' which I liked a ( Read more... )

I am still reading Arthur Bryant's The Age of Elegance, which I bought at a library sale. I was mostly interested in it because of Napoleonic wars and I was right - the 'review' chapters, where he gives broad descriptions of England and Englishmen in the epoch he describes, 1812-1822, are kind of ... cute for the almost-idyll they describe. However ( Read more... )

Outside there's the best winter weather possible: not particularly cold, not particularly windy, with fluffy snow on the ground and more snow falling down. Some of the branches of the trees near my window have icicled up ( Read more... )

Somehow I translated the poems. Not sure I am ready to admit my own work, but. My employer knew I am neither native English speaker nor a poet. So I could only do the best I can ( Read more... )

I can't quite choose a book to stay on. I have a Judith Tarr and a Cherryh started, and The House at the End of the World, and Prince Caspian on reread, and an Anne Perry I'm trying to finish, and I catch myself thinking 'Oh noes, what to read ( Read more... )

I have a book to review for potential translation. A book about orgasms. Half the fun is telling people "Okay, I have to go and work on my orgasms".

Cultural gaps/differences are a curious thing. For example, I am fairly good at English (at least, the written variant. I suspect my spoken English is weird, but I can say whatever I want to say usually); I also read a lot in English and am well-versed enough in English-language culture (much better than most people here, even the ones with good ( Read more... )

I love Pratchett's Carrot Ironfoundersson. I probably love Vimes more, but Carrot's a good example of my favourite (and too rare) type of hero. Though Caudwell's Desmond Ragwort is an even better example: someone who lives very much "by the book", but "the book" is... I don't know, so very much internalized or something, that it works in his favour ( Read more... )