http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:Vingilote&section=today deviantART RSS for by:Vingilote en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:19:37 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/24156017/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/24156017/ Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:27:56 PDT [link] If any of you are on LJ- or just want to make an account so that we can stay in touch- I'm happy to friend you. You won't currently be able to read any of the journal without being friended.

And someone stole my username Hmph!



]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/24150817/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/24150817/ Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:51:06 PDT
]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/24103119/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/24103119/ Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:03:00 PDT
For cats and other innocent things, there is no saying goodbye. There is only the now. Orpheus sat by my head and purred, asking to cuddle, nearly every morning. If I let him cuddle longer than usual on the last morning we had together, he saw no significance in it. He saw only the pleasure in the moment, in being with me the way that I think he is for a few terrible seconds these nights. Cats don't want to have closure. I wonder if they are more advanced in that than we are; do we really derive any lasting comfort or pleasure from our partings? Maybe it is better if there is only then and now, life with one person and then with another. No fear of death or separation, no worries or hopes or regrets. There would only be the present moment, only making the most of that one instant of life.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/21213143/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/21213143/ Wed, 29 Oct 2008 07:03:41 PDT onebardmojo!

1. Do you sleep with your closet doors open or closed?
Closed, until the kittens open them.

2. Do you take the shampoos and conditioner bottles from hotel?
Yes, I do! I use them, too.

3. Do you sleep with your sheets tucked in or out?
Out. I like to tuck them under my feet.

4. Have you ever stolen a street sign before?
No, I never have, but the street signs for my block were stolen recently. I actually missed my own turn. Sigh.

5. Do you like to use post-it notes?
Yes, I like post-its. I find that the things I write on them don't usually get done, though.

6. Do you cut out coupons but then never use them?
Sometimes, but more often I cut them out and then try to use them, only to realize that they are expired.

7. Would you rather be attacked by a big bear or a swarm of a bees?
Urg. Bees.

8. Do you have freckles?
Uh, I guess so. Maybe?

9. Do you always smile for pictures?
No.

10. What is your biggest pet peeve?
I'm not supposed to put something serious for a pet peeve, right? In that case, I don't have one. I try not to get upset about things that aren't serious.

Okay, maybe it's when my kitten stands right behind me when I'm cooking and then howls when I step on his tail by moving my foot slightly.

11. Do you ever count your steps when you walk?
I've done it before, but not recently.

12. Have you ever peed in the woods?
Yep!

13. What about pooped in the woods?
If I have, I don't remember it.

14. Do you ever dance even if theres no music playing?
Not recently, but I definitely have before.

15. Do you chew your pens and pencils?
I've tried to break myself of the habit.

16. How many people have you slept with this week?
None.

17. What size is your bed?
It's full-sized. It was cheap.

18. What is your Song of the week?
Jerome Kern, "Remind Me"

19. Is it okay for guys to wear pink?
Sure, if you want to.

20. Do you still watch cartoons?
I never watched cartoons when I was a kid, and I don't now.

21. Whats your least favorite movie?
Whatever it is, I'm sure I just stopped watching it if I disliked it that much.

22. Where would you bury hidden treasure if you had some?
What kind of a question is that? Somewhere very, very secret!

23. What do you drink with dinner?
Water

24. What do you dip a chicken nugget in?
I haven't eaten a chicken nugget since 6th grade. I think I dipped it in ketchup.

25. What is your favorite food?
Eel sushi.

26. What movies could you watch over and over and still love?
I'm not sure about movies, but all three of the Joss Whedon TV series (Buffy, Angel, and Firefly) I could watch over and over again.

27. Last person you kissed/kissed you?
My ex-boyfriend.

28. Were you ever a boy/girl scout?
Yes, I was a brownie and then a girl scout. It wasn't anything too exciting.

29. Would you ever strip or pose nude in a magazine?
Sure, if you pay me enough! Yes, it sounds shallow, but I want to pay my rent as much as the next person!

30. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper?
It was a couple of weeks ago- I wrote a letter to a friend from college.

31. Can you change the oil on a car?
Yes, I can. I think. I did once. I wouldn't try it again. I don't feel a connection with my car's internal workings.

32. Ever gotten a speeding ticket?
Nope! I did get one for stopping too close to someone, though. That was at the end of a very, very long work day.

33. Ran out of gas?
Yes, and the little light in my car is broken! I found out by running out. Bah.

34. Favorite kind of sandwich?
I like sandwiches with avocado and sprouts. And other stuff too, but definitely those ingredients.

35 Best thing to eat for breakfast?
Tea!
If actual food has to be included, I really like cornmeal blueberry muffins. I don't know why I only make them once a year or so.

36. What is your usual bedtime?
Midnight or a little later.

37. Are you lazy?
Yes. I can fight it off sometimes, though.

38. When you were a kid, what did you dress up as for Halloween?
I was Pippi Longstocking once. I did a variety of homemade costumes, but I think that one was the best.

39. What is your Chinese astrological sign?
Pisces? Or rabbit? Which do you mean? I don't buy into it.

40. How many languages can you speak?
5

41. Do you have any magazine subscriptions?
... ]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/20483503/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/20483503/ Sun, 14 Sep 2008 05:48:32 PDT Dunno a heap about the what and why-
Can't says I ever knowed.
Heaven to me's a fair blue stretch of sky-
Earth's jest a dusty road.

I have a slight problem with my schedule today. I somehow gave two students the exact same lesson time. Both are students that it will be very painful to call with next to no notice and tell them that I can't keep our appointment.

I've been doing this job for well over a year now, through some very busy and stressful times in my life, but I've never made quite such a glaring error. So the question is, why now? Now that I have a bit more time, and I'm supposed to be relaxing and taking a step back to think about everything that's going on? Maybe I've relaxed too far, and I've always kept much busier in the past for good reasons.

I haven't shared a picture of my kittenses in a while. They have no objections to laziness.



]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/20314930/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/20314930/ Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:57:05 PDT When icicles hang by the wall
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail;
When blood is nipt, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl
Tu-whoo!
Tu-whit! tu-whoo! A merry note!

No, it's not snowing yet. But when my lovely kitten Orpheus, who disdains cuddling during the day for the summer, crawls into my lap without being invited and promptly begins to purr at the top of his lungs, winter has begun. Let's face it- I've missed it!

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/20249943/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/20249943/ Sun, 31 Aug 2008 09:33:17 PDT O'ver all the hilltops
Is quiet now,
In all the tree-tops
Hearest thou

Hardly a breath;
The birds are asleep in the trees:
Wait; soon like these
Thou too shalt rest.

--Goethe

I feel moved to make some sort of "life update" post to this journal, since I posted a few months ago about everything being in turmoil.

To tell the truth, things mostly still are. It has not been all that long since I left my nice, safe, 40 hr/week day job to pursue something that made me feel less soulless at night. It's sort of working out, but the other job does not have any regular hours, and it requires me to pour much of myself into it. I come home, go to yoga, eat dinner, watch a TV show, and I'm pretty much done. My hours are letting up now, but since that means a huge drop in income, I can't exactly relax and enjoy it.

For the future? Still uncertain. In my bits of free time, I've done a little bit of looking, mostly into grad schools- I'm thinking of going back to get my MA. But mostly, when I have free time I focus it on what I'm doing right now. I've been cooking more, and I want to start baking my own bread again. I stopped doing that maybe 4 months ago, and I miss it.

On the writing front, I've spent far too much time staring at paper. Interestingly enough, ink does not appear on it on its own. I feel like I have tons of ideas swimming in my head, asking to be written about, but that I am a broken conduit. I am worried that they will be stuck in my head forever.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/20150133/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/20150133/ Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:34:56 PDT
Now that it's Monday and the castle is still there, it's just kind of confusing.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/20004842/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/20004842/ Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:10:46 PDT
Yes, it was time for something fun.

A- Angelica. Candied angelica is something that I occasionally crave very badly.
B- Bouquets. I'm a sucker for flowers. I got the most beautiful arrangement I've received in my life this week.
C- Care. Something I aspire to have.
D- Diva. My voice teacher tells me at least once a month that I need to be more of one.
E- Eccentric. I can't deny it!
F- Fairy stories. I've always loved them.
G- The first letter of my name.
H- Hope. One virtue that I'm pretty sure I don't have, but I would like to.
I- Ice cream. I like it more than *onebardmojo!
J- Japan. A place where I spent a very important year.
K- Kittens. Yes, I love them.
L- Latin. Source of pain and pleasure.
M- Mysteries. They keep life interesting.
N- Normal. When you figure out what it is, let me know so I can tell you why I'm not.
O- Oaks. They must be one of my favorite trees.
P- Pickiness. It's not always a bad thing.
Q- Queries. I am full of them.
R- Rest. I always say that I'm looking for it, but my actions don't reflect that desire.
S- Silliness. You need an explanation?
T- Trust. Something I think it is important to give and keep.
U- Undefined. Because I couldn't give you a complete list of me-words, could I/
V- Vengeance. No, I don't take it, but a character very close to my heart does.
W- Wide-eyed.
X- teXas. A very interesting place to visit!
Y- Yoga. An important part of my daily routine.
Z- Zany.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/19934546/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/19934546/ Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:56:14 PDT
Chaos ensued, of course. But the moment came with no warning. By the time everyone had figured out what happened, all we could do was grasp at the choice we still had, which was how we would react to what happened. But the big things on life just creep up on you, I guess, and all you're left with is choices that don't make any sense.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/19796985/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/19796985/ Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:29:39 PDT Dies Augenzelt
Von deinem Glanz
Allein erhellt,
O füll es ganz!

That's kinda what I do best. I've thought for a long time that being open emotionally is the way to go. Being emotionally vulnerable means that the chances of your getting hurt, often and deeply, are excellent. But it also means that you won't miss out on feeling anything else. In other words, I think that refusing to be emotionally "strong" and put up a certain level of an emotional barrier to protect oneself is actually the best thing to do, and the thing that perhaps requires the most emotional strength.

But here is my question- Is the distinction between one's emotions and one's mind a false distinction? Can you feel that range of emotion at the drop of a pin and still keep your thinking straight? Maybe when it comes right down to it, I'm not mentally strong enough to feel the emotions that I'm willing to be vulnerable enough to feel.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/19268186/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/19268186/ Tue, 08 Jul 2008 06:31:43 PDT The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then hee
Whom Thunder hath made greater?*

--Paradise Lost

I recently returned to an old book-friend of mine, Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It's been four or five years since we spoke last, because I hadn't invited him to a permanent spot in my bookshelf. For some reason, probably because things are very strange for me right now, I found myself thinking about this book-friend more and more, and I finally picked up my phone and arranged to see him again.

I was aware that this book-friend had a noticeable influence on my thinking. We have a complicated history, which begins with fascination and repulsion, all mixed together, when I first discovered him in Japan. I've known for quite a while that there are maybe a dozen or two dozen motifs or ideas that the book-friend gave me that I see in my own life pretty regularly. I can't stand in a high place or listen to Beethoven without recalling him, even though it's been years since I saw him last. What I didn't know is how much of my thinking is similar to his thinking. Almost every page has me wondering why it is that my life has proceeded the way it has since I met him. Is he just my soulmate, one of those rare book-friends who shares most of my worldview? That seems most likely. Still, it is possible that some of the decisions I have made have subconsciously drawn upon him, pattering my own life according to his themes.

*Disclaimer: Following the above reasoning, according to Milton, might make us like fallen angels resigning themselves to live in hell. Oh well. ]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/19141317/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/19141317/ Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:59:30 PDT Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.

Remember those brief moments when your life seemed put together? Not perfect, of course, but maybe it seemed like several things were happening and progressing in a way that you liked, you felt that your future was settled in some aspects and you were happy with those parts of your life, and you knew that you would continue growing and learning things? The next time you have one- or maybe you're having one right now- please savor it. Because at least in my experience, things fall apart at the center. When things start to lose their coherence, it's not just one little detail on the edge of my world. Everything has to happen at once. Put another way, one big change can disrupt everything else.

I think I'm at a turning point in my life, and it might be one that I should have seen coming for the last year or so. You've had enough time to laze, the cosmos seems to be saying to me. Get up and decide what matters most to you and what you're going to do about it. I'm being presented with decisions that I've never had to face before.

Moving, for one. I am seriously considering just leaving town in a few months here, in order to be with people I love. The problem is, I will leave other people I love behind. I would leave my settled life that is very comfortable. Perhaps it's cowardice to cling to it, but perhaps not.

Career. I printed off my letter of resignation today. Will I turn it in? I don't have a backup plan for finances. I just feel that my current job is using me and sucking out my soul. I am pretty sure that I would rather be broke and indebted than have to come somewhere that makes me this unhappy. What will I do next? You can see how these two are connected. Where will my job be?

Relationship(s). The kind that...well, no matter how I describe it, I won't be happy. "The more-than-friend-kind" implies that friendship is somehow less. "The romance-kind" is inappropriate in this case. The "boyfriend-kind," I suppose, although I don't like that term either. It seems that when it comes to this sort of relationship in general, and to my current one in particular, there are huge questions that I have no answers to. There is so much about myself that I really don't know, that I have to experience in order to find out. Am I OK with this? Can he be?

Things fall apart. But I am looking at this time in my life as a choice about what I want to hold together most. I don't think everything has to break. It's just that in saving one thing, another might shatter.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/19058300/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/19058300/ Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:43:37 PDT
Today I took my sandals off. Not the brightest of decisions, considering the huge blisters that have since appeared on the soles of my feet. But I have concluded that the world is simply different when you can feel the ground through your feet. Everything is more real. Things at the office, on the other hand, seem ludicrous. Or maybe that isn't so much a result of the shoes, since when I put my sandals back on this afternoon, they still seemed fairly ridiculous to me.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18928551/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18928551/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:26:57 PDT
That all ended on Saturday. On Saturday night, I was completely exhausted. I think my mind decided it was bedtime before 11pm. Every night since then, I've been clutching at all the sleep I can get and thinking about how nice it will be, once I'm rested, to have time to do simple things like cook and pet my kittens. Speaking of the kittens, they're sick and tired of being abused like this. First I'm never home, and now I'm home a bit more and I choose to sleep all the time? What rubbish!

Hopefully in a week or two here I will be recovered and will be able to amuse you with more interesting journal entries. I think I feel some more stories coming, too.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18778567/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18778567/ Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:49:37 PDT
They gave it to me when I walked into the hospital. They didn't question me at all, just handed me that label when I identified myself and the person I was seeing.

When I walked into the intensive care unit, I saw her blood family there. Their badges said the same thing as mine.

The little baby, alive only because of all of our medical knowledge and technology, slept on. I wish I could say that she slept peacefully, but it is hard to know the mental state of a girl whose foothold in our world is so insecure. We can touch her, but we can not hold her in our arms as she falls asleep. In the past, it is in doing that that I have felt the most connection with a very young child. Instead, we touch her head gently and watch her, hoping that soon she will go home and become a part of the world, not this place full of people and instruments but devoid of everyday life.

We talk about little things. Work, the exploits of people we know. Birth, marriage, love. By the time I leave, I know that my name tag is telling the truth.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18693156/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18693156/ Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:03:51 PDT [link] by ~Pahnna

My character for the RPG In Nomine is named Daloc. He is a Malakite- a pure warrior of good. His choir (type of angel) is obsessed with honor, which they define as a person's internal moral code. Of all the choirs of angels, they alone have no demon counterpart. They can become very dissonant (physically and mentally ill) if they act against their own natures, but they can never transform completely into agents of evil. All other angels can, and the Malakim never quite forget this.

Daloc serves Gabriel, the archangel of Fire. She is insane- that is the calm, clinical diagnosis. To Daloc, she is inspiration, the breath of life, creation and destruction. Fire cleanses and burns away impurities. Fire is a powerful weapon, for those able to work with it- he would not say control it, because he does not quite believe it can be controlled. Fire is the spark that gives all of us, humans and angels, a purpose for living.

Daloc himself is quite young. He has only seen a few hundred years of our time pass. Nearly all of that has been spent in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, where he works with three other angels- Kaya, a Kyriotate who is nearly as impetuous as him, George, a sage bartender whose judgement he almost always trusts, and Selene, a calm dreamer who is happy to let him sleep by her furnace when he is not roaming the streets. By day, Daloc is a janitor at the University of Minnesota. Cleanliness is his newly discovered passion. In fact, it is his dearest ambition to receive the Word "Cleansing Flame." This would mean that he would become the embodiment of the cleansing flame in the universe. It's quite a lofty goal, and he knows it, but that is what he hopes he is working towards. At night, he likes to smite the cruel.

The thing I like best about Daloc is his innocence. He knows a great deal, much more than I do, but he is not the brightest sword in the armies of heaven. To him, people pretty much either deserve a chance to live or deserve to be smote, and he feels comfortable judging which category a person belongs in. Because of that, his character's headspace can be a little bit disturbing for me, but it is always a pleasure to experience the simple delight he takes in killing a demon and having a profound assurance that that action is unquestionably right because it makes the world better.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18640553/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18640553/ Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:38:26 PDT
Love requires some combination of rational knowledge, pure emotion, and choices that prioritize the beloved.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18474875/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18474875/ Sat, 24 May 2008 07:02:34 PDT Pahnna and I are on a week-long trip to Texas. We're having quite the fun time, although I think both of us miss various online friends a bit. Hopefully you are all entertaining yourselves without us!

Yesterday, we got to go see the Winchester mansion. It was built by a very rich lady who married into the Winchester gun fortune. She was told by a psychic whom she consulted after losing her only child that the reason her life was unhappy was that the spirits of those killed by Winchester rifles were haunting her. In response, she built on her house, 24 hours a day, for the remaining 40 years of her life, hoping to confuse and/or propitiate the spirits. As ghost stories go, I find this one highly intriguing.

The house is all full of strange nooks and crannies. There are almost no standard shapes used. All around, worked subtly or ostentatiously into the decor, are the spiritual symbols that spoke to Sarah Winchester- the spider web, for one, and the number thirteen. There is lots of storage everywhere. It all looks like just a slightly eccentric but beautiful house, until you look a bit beyond the surface and see that there is no purpose to anything. It is the least efficient use of building space possible. The little corner rooms could not have been used for anything, all the interior windows and empty doors are either meaningless or highly symbolic, depending on how you look at such things. It's as if Sarah Winchester's mindscape has survived as a physical place. I would love to explore there with no tour and no barriers. And possibly at dusk. It's a very alluring place, and it seemed to tell me that if I could just look through the whole thing, explore all of it, I could uncover some sort of meaning. I don't think Mrs. Winchester ever did.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18176384/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18176384/ Mon, 05 May 2008 06:59:44 PDT How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair!
-Edmund Waller

Written any stories lately? For me, writing seems to go in four stages. The first stage involves me going about my everyday life with some idea in my head. I don't even think about it often, but somewhere in my subconsciousness my brain (or the elves who live in my brain, or something) spin a framework. Then they say, "Okay! Write it, quick! Drop everything!"

"Eek," I say. Then comes the painful/fun part. When I'm actually producing something, and I feel like it's intimately connected to me. It's emerging out of me, and I have to work to create every new idea that flows from the next. If I go back to read it, I always hate what I've come out with.

Then comes the euphoria. I've completely birthed the piece. It has a life of its own, but somehow it's beyond my praise or condemnation. It just exists in its own, happy little world, and I'm glad that I was able to finish it.

In the fourth stage, I've regained my footing and can look at the piece again. I can edit and criticize and be unhappy with technique. It's quite satisfying, but after I've cleaned up the piece, I don't feel the same connection that I felt with it in its raw form.

That said, where does the audience come in? In that initial step, or step two? Whenever I (or anyone, I think) is pushing something out of their mind into the world, they have to change it to be relatively connected, to be comprehensible to others. Otherwise, they would be content with leaving it as a thought in their own mode of thinking. Even if they write only for themselves, isn't part of the goal of writing to create a piece that looks like it could be followed by anyone, not some sort of internal blob that is meaningful but incoherent?

Writing for a person is like giving them a little bit of yourself, squeezed out and formed to a shape you think they might find comprehensible. While it's incredibly personal, doesn't that mean that there is a little bit of them in what you write as well?

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18066112/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18066112/ Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:06:19 PDT


When he was an adolescent kitty, he had a problem with bedwetting. My bed, not his. But then he grew out of it, and his mother was very happy.

Until last week. This cat peed on my bed once. I washed everything, which takes some time, slept in my bed one night- and he peed on it again. Now I'm in the process of washing everything again, while I sleep on my couch. This morning? Yup, peed on my second blanket and couch. Sigh.

Anyone have very good couch cleaning recommendations? I wouldn't have gotten the couches if I thought this would happen!

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18002350/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/18002350/ Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:46:28 PDT Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky,—
So this wing’d hour is dropped to us from above.
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,
This close-companioned inarticulate hour
When twofold silence was the song of love."

--From "Silent Noon"
Dante Gabriel Rossetti

I had the chance to go to an excellent concert last night, with Bryn Terfel, who is one of my favourite musicians. He is a Bass/Baritone, for those of you who haven't had the chance to hear him! His voice can adapt to a wide variety of styles, from Wagner to Broadway, and he is able perform each style with a lot of authentic passion.

Too bad I was so sleepy by 9pm, which was only half-way through the concert! Oh well.

And in other news, my kitten whom I thought had gotten over his adolescent ways of using my bed as his litter box? Not so much! He stopped for five whole months, too. Maybe this is an isolated incident. I am desperately hoping so.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/17946415/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/17946415/ Sun, 20 Apr 2008 15:04:09 PDT I would think as long as they;
Through the quiet sunniness
I would stray away to brood
By a hidden, beaten way
In the sunny solitude,

I would think until I found
Something I can never find,
Something lying on the ground,
In the bottom of my mind.

-James Stephens, "The Goat Paths"

Today was the first day in about two months that I didn't have to work at either of my jobs, not counting a very short and stressful trip last month. I think I must have adjusted to working, because it's quite a shock to me. (Of course, it looks like it'll be about another two months before I have a day like this again, so I'm not too worried!)

It was a nice, lazy day, full of kittens and naps and singing- I'm working on a song called "The Goat Paths" from a song cycle called "in Green Ways" by Herbert Howells, which is very challenging. I got a few things done- cleaned my kitchen, worked on the story for my role-playing game tonight, sang in my choir, etc. But mostly I've just been sleepily sitting around in the sun. I think the kittens are rubbing off on me! It's interesting, because whenever I'm working I'm convinced that I would rather be at home, but once I'm here I wish I could be working. Well, working at the good job, not the bad job. Today has definitely been better than working at the bad job!

The point of this meandering journal entry is that I seem to have trained myself to need the structure of working, which is a quite a change for me. I can't help the meandering- I've been singing about twisty goat paths!

Hope you all had a good weekend.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/17877048/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/17877048/ Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:16:31 PDT
In slightly less serious news, I got some absolutely wonderful news about a success at work this morning. Yay! So if you've been waiting to tell me something sad, I am now sufficiently happy to hear it.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/17504085/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/17504085/ Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:28:51 PDT
]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/17406280/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/17406280/ Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:07:56 PDT




]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/17114240/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/17114240/ Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:30:56 PST

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/17069185/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/17069185/ Tue, 26 Feb 2008 06:40:16 PST
And thank you, and happy Tuesday!

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/16941224/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/16941224/ Mon, 18 Feb 2008 07:22:33 PST
On the positive side, I'm having fun with the Collections feature here. See? Achaean Order poetry! [link]

And things relating to Achaean dragons!
[link]

And stuff about Cyrene!
[link]

Let me know if I missed your favourite piece.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/16829210/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/16829210/ Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:25:31 PST
It's the geekiest weekend of the year for me starting this Friday. We have a three-day gaming convention here each President's Day weekend. If you immediately visualize lots of guys who never shower wandering around and talking about d-20s, you're not entirely wrong, but it's not all like that! Really! There are plenty of us slightly more normal folk, who at least shower and interact with the world on a regular basis. In the past, it has been three fun days of tabletop roleplaying (Call of Cthulhu, Mage, GURPS, etc), and maybe a couple of board games.

This year, most of my gaming group is signed up for something extra strange. We are doing a LARP which is set as a bunch of scheming women in a harem plotting for power. Terrifying, eh? I have never LARPed before. In fact, I may have done some mocking of LARPers, on the assumption that they were either in the park wacking each other with swords or wishing that they were vampires in real life. But scarily enough, I'm kind of excited! We are making all of our own costumes, so I spent half my weekend sewing a pink dress for the occasion. And I never, ever wear pink.

The kittens spent half the weekend trying to find out how many times it is physically possible to knock over trashcans, open cupboards, and generally make a mess in one hour. Looks like I need to buy more baby locks.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/16563286/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/16563286/ Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:51:32 PST
I'm also moving in about a week, to a very pretty apartment. I looked at dozens, and finally chose the one with the beautiful architecture, neat wall colours, and pretty light fixtures. I hope I don't decide I was crazy to take this one over all the ones with bigger kitchens! But for now, I'm very excited about it. I'll even own a sofa, for the first time in my life, although that won't be for another month or two.

And, you may have noticed, I'm writing again and playing Achaea again. I took a three month break from writing, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't good for me. So you can expect to see me around more! I hope that all of you are doing well.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/14905069/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/14905069/ Wed, 03 Oct 2007 20:20:25 PDT
That's how i ended up here, with a kitten purring furiously on my lap and a schoolbook half-heartedly open, playing a game I never thought I would play again in my life. What can I say? It's a funny thing.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/12066034/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/12066034/ Mon, 05 Mar 2007 10:54:58 PST
[link]

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11743875/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11743875/ Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:09:58 PST
A fine, amiable and dreamy young man, skilled in horsemanship and archery, you were also from a long line of dribbling madmen. King at 12 and quickly married to your sweetheart, Bavarian Princess Isabeau, you enjoyed many happy months together before either of you could speak anything of the other's language. However, after illness you became a tad unstable. When a raving lunatic ran up to your entourage spouting an incoherent prophecy of doom, you were unsettled enough to slaughter four of your best men when a page dropped a lance. Your hair and nails fell out. At a royal masquerade, you and your courtiers dressed as wild men, ending in tragedy when four of them accidentally caught fire and burned to death. You were saved by the timely intervention of the Duchess of Berry's underskirts.

This brought on another bout of sickness, which surgeons countered by drilling holes in your skull. The following months saw you suffer an exorcism, beg your friends to kill you, go into hyperactive fits of gaiety, run through your rooms to the point of exhaustion, hide from imaginary assassins, claim your name was Georges, deny that you were King and fail to recognise your family. You smashed furniture and wet yourself at regular intervals. Passing briefly into erratic genius, you believed yourself to be made of glass and demanded iron rods in your attire to prevent you breaking.

In 1405 you stopped bathing, shaving or changing your clothes. This went on until several men were hired to blacken their faces, hide, jump out and shout "boo!", upon which you resumed basic hygiene. Despite this, your wife continued sleeping with you until 1407, when she hired a young beauty, Odette de Champdivers, to take her place. Isabeau then consoled herself, as it were, with your brother. Her lovers followed thick and fast while you became a pawn of your court, until you had her latest beau strangled and drowned.

A severe fever was fended off with oranges and pomegranates in vast quantities, but you succumbed again in 1422 and died. Your disease was most likely hereditary. Unfortunately, you had anywhere up to eleven children, who variously went on to develop capriciousness, great cruelty, insecurity, paranoia, revulsion towards food and, in one case, a phobia of bridges.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11644041/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11644041/ Thu, 01 Feb 2007 06:41:01 PST
]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11551825/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11551825/ Wed, 24 Jan 2007 10:36:26 PST
On a similarly sad note, I purchased WoW on a whim- it was on sale. It so so wonderfully mindless and yet challenging that it is the perfect procrastination tool around 2am. Yum.

Hope you all are well, even if you're quiet!

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11360042/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11360042/ Mon, 08 Jan 2007 08:59:06 PST
The operas we saw were the Magic Flute, The First Emperor, and I Puritani. The second of those premeired in December. It's by Tan Dun, and the librettist was the man who wrote Waiting. Sorry, his name eludes me at the moment. It's an opera about the first emperor of China, and was actually quite stunning. I found it especially interesting because in a few months I'm going to have to perform a bunch of modern American music, which is often viewed as a challenge both to sing and to listen to. In this case, although the music was indeed modern, the opera managed to get one of its truly unsingable tunes stuck in my head. Quite a feat!

The soprano in I Puritani (Anna Netrebko) was breathtaking. It's a shame that the plot of that opera is bascially "Oh, who will I marry? Drat, he ran away! Now I'm going insane. Wait, he's back? And all these people want to kill him? Oh no, they're all happy! And we're happy too! Yay!" I would love to see her in something more substantial.

So, that was my weekend. Hope things went well for all of you.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11187679/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11187679/ Mon, 25 Dec 2006 11:00:10 PST All lame men who stumble,
Come haste ye, nor feel ye afraid;
For Jesus, our treasure,
with love past all measure,
In lowly poor manger was laid.

Though wise men who found him
laid rich gifts around him,
Yet oxen they gave him their hay:
And Jesus in beauty
Accepted their duty;
Contented in manger he lay.

Then haste we to show him
the praises we owe him;
Our service he ne'er can despise:
whose love is able
to show us that stable
Where softly in manger he lies.

--Welsh carol

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11036658/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11036658/ Tue, 12 Dec 2006 06:24:39 PST
Lots of love for all of you, and very little for Apple!


]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11004332/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/11004332/ Sat, 09 Dec 2006 09:45:17 PST Look how we've grown!

Alcestis, about 2 weeks after I got him:


Orpheus, this morning, on the same cat-tree:


]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10991268/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10991268/ Fri, 08 Dec 2006 05:24:11 PST
5. Knock, knock.
Who'se there?
Plato.
Plato Who?
Plato mashed potatoes.


4. Semper ubi sub ubi.


3 Where did Caesar keep his armies?

In his sleevies!


2. A Roman citizen was on his way to the forum, and he met a client of his and had to stop and talk a little. When he got to the forum, he was late, and Cicero was already speaking. He squeezed into his place, elbowed the guy next to him, and whispered, "What's he saying?" The other man said, "Quiet! He's just getting to the verb!"


1. What did the Greek tailor say to his customer?


"Euripides, Eumenides"

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10947550/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10947550/ Mon, 04 Dec 2006 11:47:16 PST Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
--Luke 21:34

The Advent Wreath is a common feature of Christian households and churches of various persuasions. It's supposed to be an evergreen wreath with four candles, three purple and one pink (or three royal blue, depending on the church). One candle is lit each week, and then on Christmas eve a white candle is placed in the centre of the wreath.

My wreath isn't made of evergreen. In fact, it isn't a wreath. I can't even say that it's four candles arranged in a square, becuase if you have ever tried to keep four tall things that make interesting noises when they fall down away from two boisterous kittens, you know that it's hopeless. Right now, it's just a purple taper in a candle holder, surrounded by double-sided tape, the ultimate kitten deterrent.

Different churches have different traditions about the symbolization of each candle, with the notable exception of the third, but in the Episcopal Church where I grew up and in my own Church, it is loosely identified as symbolizing Hope.

It is significant that a season of waiting begins with hope. There is a great deal of talk about Advent being a quiet period of preparation, in which we do our best to make ourselves ready for the coming of Christ. In the coming weeks, we'll hear John the Baptist call us to repent and be baptized, so that when he comes he will find us prepared and cleansed. If that sounds a bit gloomy- all about the things we have to stop doing, and all the 'unpleasant' things we have to start doing- then it's important to remember that the season begins with hope. It isn't about opression and unpleasantness. Rather, it is about both hope for Christ's coming and hope that we may be able, this year, to make ourselves a bit more ready to see Christ in the infant Jesus and in all the people we meet, who are made in God's image.

That is not the extent of the hope of Advent, though. The readings for the first Sunday began with the hope of the Jews for Christ, went through a letter reminding us to live in a manner which befits our hopes, and then finished with the greatest hope- that Christ will come at an unknown time, and this world will end as we "see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." (Luke 21:27)

People have lived for thousands of years, undergoing all sorts of trials because they were able to keep their sight on God's promises. "The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah." (Jer 33:14) Those days have come, but in Advent we relive the hopeful waiting of the Jews for Christ even as we too wait for the coming of Christ's kingdom. That can be an uncomfortable hope to have at times, but Advent is a season that can help us learn to expect it joyously.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10922828/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10922828/ Sat, 02 Dec 2006 08:52:35 PST Mmmrph?


I hope the multiplicity of cute kitten pictures isn't annoying anyone, but I can't resist taking them.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10905189/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10905189/ Thu, 30 Nov 2006 18:21:25 PST
I'm not just talking about Achaea; I do everything online, from shopping and finances to talking to my friends and family, blogging, reading scholarly journals, and taking 15 minutes to relax and think about something other than Greek or Latin. It really is an amazing thing, this network that plugs us all in to the world.

On Sunday, I will once more have my lovely umbilical cord to the words and images of the earth. It took me this long because I needed something affordable, and I don't have a phone line, so the cheaper dial-up options aren't viable. It's amusing, but I am getting cable internet for far, far less than the price of a phone line and a basic dial-up subscription.

A couple of weeks ago I finally became so frustated that I signed up for cable internet with my university's discount, which gets me nearly half off the listed price. I was still waiting to hear back when there was a knock on my door one night. It was a Comcast salesman, who wanted to give me a ridiculously large discount because there was someone else in my building who needed their service cancelled. It saves them a great deal of money if they can combine installations. He offered me a package of basic cable and internet for half again of my university discount, and I was happy to accept, although the cable is a bit of a joke, since I have no TV.

So, you will be seeing a bit more of me after Sunday. I'm looking forward to keeping up more fully with all my online friends. The most interesting thing about my three-month hiatus is that it has really given me control of my former addiction to Achaea. In those months, Achaea kept on being a fun, relaxing activity, because everything I do there is so different from what I do in real life, even if things there come with huge sets of problems and setbacks, just as they do in the real world. I learned to stop worrying about those problems outside of my character, though, and that makes it a much healthier game for me, even if it still is much more involved and emotional than what most people expect from a 'mere' game.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10842343/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10842343/ Sat, 25 Nov 2006 06:48:35 PST We're sneaky!


This is Alcestis being sneaky in a box in which a medium-sized mug was shipped, to give you some sense of the scale.



This is Orpheus being sneaky in my parents' house on Thanksgiving...



And for very good reasons, too!



And on a completely different note, here is a lovely picture I came across on DA that looks something like how I picture Wivy.



Enjoy the weekend of this long weekend!

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10825979/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10825979/ Thu, 23 Nov 2006 17:27:05 PST
We had a salad with smoked fish and beets for our first course, with freshly baked rye bread. Then there was turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, brussel sprouts, chesnut puree, and fresh rolls. There was a cheese course (although I've not been able to eat plain cheese since I got back from Japan) and delicious pumpkin pie. And now I feel like sleeping for a few days, or maybe going to the gym for several hours and then sleeping.

Of course, there was wine with each course. The most spectacular was the '71 Chateau d'Yquem, a desert wine made with such specific grapes that it takes a skilled picker a day to pick the grapes for a single bottle.

Now that I've convinced you all that I'm a total food snob, I should probably mention that I don't eat like that every day!

I have a great deal to be thankful for, today and every day. I'm not going to make you a list, since 11 or 111 would hardly suffice, but being able to log onto DA and see all of your art and journals is definitely one of the things I am grateful for. Apparently the kitten who just jumped into my lap and started purring agrees.

I hope your Thanksgivings were wonderful, or still are if you haven't finished them yet!

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10791350/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10791350/ Mon, 20 Nov 2006 16:37:39 PST
4:00am
There are four little eyes staring at me- two golden and two grey-green. One (the one with grey-green eyes, I know by experience) has its little teeth lovingly gripping my nose. Since I've only been asleep for a couple of hours, this is adorable but less than welcome. The kittens get shut out of the bedroom, and I try vainly to go back to sleep.

6:00am
The alarm goes off. Now I finally feel like I could doze off.

6:27am
Why does my alarm have to have 9-minutes snoozes?
I get up, take a shower, enjoy watching Orpheus jump into the shower, only to find out that it is wet, and make breakfast- a pot of tea (Assam Satrupa Kama) and a bowl of cereal.

7:15am
I leave my apartment, after instructing the kittens not to destroy everything at once. On the way to work, I hear the newstory that dogs higher than 14 inches are being banned in Beijing. Being a packmate of a very large dog and an animal lover, this is not a good start to my day. You know that old adage about how a person's character is shown not by how they treat their equals, but by how they treat their inferiors? Pets are extremely vulnerable to humans. We can abuse them, starve them, kill them, and they will never tell anyone that we did it. The dogs won't stage a successful grassroots protest about the police collecting them. If they're like the dogs I know, they'll assume that someone at the top of the pack ordered it, and do their best to lovingly obey.

8:00am
I'm at my desk and working. Have I mentioned that my job is boring?

1:00pm
Phew. I walk over to my favourite class ever! It's called the Philosophy of Language, a misleading description. That makes it sound like we actually discuss meaningful things about language. Instead, we have been talking for several weeks about Alf and Alf*. Alf* lives on a parallel world on which the chemical structure of water is XYZ, not H20. This schenario has occupied many 'great minds,' and probably given many philosophers tenure. It is supposed to drastically challenge your worldview, because it means that what 'water' means to Alf* might be different from what 'water' means to you. Gasp.

The stupid thing about that class is that it tries to sanatize language and make it entirely rational and comprehensible. I haven't met any person yet who hasn't held contradictory beliefs about something or another. The world we see can hardly be described in a completely ordered way, considering that we don't understand great gobs of it. Is it that surprising that we developed language that can express contradiction?

Yeah, I spend the class playing Achaea.

2:15
That's over till Wednesday. Yay.

2:45
I get back to my car. That's one of the downsides of going to school on a huge campus.

3:05
The kittens only destroyed bits of the apartment. I think my one houseplant, a very sturdy cactus, is becoming more and more doomed. I make lunch, or whatever you call it at that time- leftover soup. Afterwards, I realize I have a couple hundred pages of reading to do for my class tonight. Today's assignment is a large chunk of Augustine's City of God. It's good stuff, if you've never read it. I did read it some years back, but having read it for personal enrichment several years ago just doesn't cut it for this class.

4:00
I check my e-mail very quickly. I can on occasion get internet in the very corner of my living room. Then my kittens fall asleep- Alcestis on my back and Orpheus curled up right next to me on his back, with his little kitten face under one paw. I'm too softhearted to move such cuteness, so I continue to amuse myself online.

4:45
I really need to finish that reading, so I disturb my adorable kittens.

5:30
I leave for night class, The Age of Augustine. The lecture appears to be about Stilicho, etc.

9:30
I expect to get home. I have about 3 hours of Latin to do. Greek was cancelled because of Thanksgiving (and I give sincere thanks for that), so I can go to bed afterwards, relatively early. That sounds good just about now.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10763972/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10763972/ Sat, 18 Nov 2006 07:39:05 PST Napping is better with two. About a minute after I took this, they decided that napping is even better with three, and fell asleep on my lap.



]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10756133/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10756133/ Fri, 17 Nov 2006 13:21:49 PST HalcyonDreams

Interesting how we seem to keep such almost violently important things unsaid, but say all sorts of things that don't matter at all. I'm certainly no exception there, but I decided to be brave and post them, even though they're deeply personal.

1. On the night when we sat down and you told me that you were sorry for what a jerk you were, you didn't know at all what kind of a jerk you actually were, because you never thought to ask me, then or now, what I felt about it.

2. You could have pretended to listen to what I had to say once every few weeks and not scoffed so much. It might have made all the difference for me.

3. I love you.

4. I'm sorry that I screamed at you when we were arguing, but you did scream at me, too. I'm sure it made you look bad in front of the teacher in the next room. I guess some people just can't understand each other.

4. I wish I had sent you that e-mail I wrote, instead of deleting it.

5. You could have just told me, you know.

6. Maybe you shouldn't have reprimanded me for crying.

7. Thank you so much for what you did. Having that sort of compassion and then being motivated to help someone out is so valuable. I will never forget the things you helped me see and learn, and how you were kind even when I was grumpy.

8. Every Friday I wanted to slap that huge smile of your face and put some sense in you.

9. What an awkward position you were in. Then again, so was I, and that never brought us together, did it? I'm grateful for what you did, but I wish that we could have been the kind of people who get along with each other, instead of trying to find a way to avoid each other for as a long as possible every day.

10. You really needed to calm down and be a little more rational. You're only human.

11. I hated you so much, even though I knew I shouldn't be harboring that much hatred for anyone. Would you like to know now that I had all of my co-workers laughing at my imitations of you at one point or another?

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10689200/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10689200/ Sat, 11 Nov 2006 11:14:57 PST Are you suuure you want to write that paper?


]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10602751/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10602751/ Fri, 03 Nov 2006 10:58:10 PST Sleep is a good thing.



]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10591460/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10591460/ Thu, 02 Nov 2006 09:25:32 PST
The wierdest thing that happened was that I got sent over to the JAMEX program, a Spanish/Japanese program for middle school students, to do some Japanese with the kids a couple of times. Since I was the only JA in JAMEX, it meant that I was jumping around and gesturing wildly in front of 50 people- none of whom spoke more than 5 words of Japanese. It's a very odd sensation. At least in the Japanese camp, the other teachers understand you.

I am really overwhelmed by work at the moment. I started a new job three weeks ago, so I'm still in the learning process for that on top of all my school work. I have several major papers to write in the next few weeks, none of which I've started. Oh, and did I mention that I have to figure out when I'm graduating and with what degrees, and what in the world I'm doing afterwards? Ick.

I'm thinking of getting my hair cut.

And I'll just leave you wondering about what the title meant! ]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10500699/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10500699/ Tue, 24 Oct 2006 18:39:18 PDT
The hardest part of this is leaving my kittens with a friend. I found someone willing to take them home for four days, which is great because I know they'll get lots of attention and love, but I have to admit to the selfish worry that my little babies will forget who their mommy is. Kittens that young don't have very long memories, after all. In any case, I will miss my favourite fluffy kitten boys.

Yes, that's right, I said kitten boys. Alcestis is one of those rare tortiseshell males. If you google them, you'll find all sorts of interesting articles on how these mutants are generally unfertile, die within days of birth, and possibly are all XXY, since it's hypothesized that the tortiseshell gene(s) are attached to the Y chromosome. My kitten-boy is stuck with his heroine name, though. He told me that he doesn't mind, and it will be something for the geeks among us to snicker about when the non-geeks fail to understand!

I have pictures, both of my babies and of me in my costume for the play, which ended just as my cold got better and I could sing normally again. I don't have a cable at the moment, but I will post them when I return on Monday.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10453295/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10453295/ Fri, 20 Oct 2006 07:50:06 PDT
It's no wonder Humpty Dumpty couldn't be put together again, if he had a 12-foot splatter radius.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10335919/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10335919/ Mon, 09 Oct 2006 11:37:13 PDT Mew! Mew! Meeeewlll!

Yes, I'm in love with my kittens. I'm convinced that they're my adopted babies, but since they're pretty sure that I'm their adopted food dispenser and scratching post, it all works out.

The most amazing thing about them is how fast they are growing and developing. On Friday, I showed them a catnip mouse, and they ran and hid under the couch. On Saturday, they were killing the mouse, my socks (whether my feet were in them or not) and my nose. On Sunday, they figured out that food doesn't just fall into their bowls like mana from the heavens, but that I actually put it in when I am in the kitchen, so whenever I went near the kitchen they sat right underneath my feet and mewed piteously. Since I bake bread on the weekends, this was something of a problem.

It's a good thing they're unbearably adorable when they curl up upside-down in my lap and purr while they fall asleep, or they might drive me insane!

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10290452/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10290452/ Thu, 05 Oct 2006 07:01:42 PDT
I believe I complained about this in the context of a voice competition last spring. This fall is much more intense than that was, however. This weekend, my choir is performing at two weddings, both of which I have to sing solos in (or get to sing solos in, when I'm feeling optimistic.) Two weeks from then, I'm putting on an Irish dress in the style of the 30's and singing ballads in between the scenes of a play about crazy Irish people, for a couple of weeks. Then in the spring I have the dreaded/anticipated Senior Recital, for which in some fit of madness I selected extremely demanding music.

I don't get worked up about performing because I think I'm awful. I know very well that I have lots and lots of room for improvement, but I also have a sense of how far I've come, and I'm quite comfortable with my voice as it is. This is a sort of yoga-like philosophy: Sure, there's a pose that would be nice to acheive, but if you are working towards that within your own limits, all is well.

It is much more accurate to say that I am always apprehensive about performing because it requires me to publicly display a piece of myself which is much more comfortable to keep hidden. Just as when someone writes a very heartfelt poem, they have tried to put a piece of their very soul into a communicable form, when I sing I try to communicate something very personal. I suppose art could almost be defined as trying to make a piece of yourself both communicable and beautiful, and then displaying it for your audience to either appreciate or ruthlessly tear apart.

And I get my kittens tomorrow morning. My motivation for homework has dropped to a new low because of this! Speaking of which, I have two exams today and I haven't begun to prepare yet, so I'm off for now. Hope you all are well!

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10257182/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10257182/ Mon, 02 Oct 2006 08:50:19 PDT
September certainly flew by for me. I have a lot of school work- especially papers and languages- and I still have no internet or television. I can testify to the fact that just because there is very little to do at home besides work does not mean that I will actually work more. The only discernable difference in my productivity is that when I sit down to write every day, I rarely come out with anything related to Achaea.

And I get my kitties sometime next week! Yay.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10150318/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10150318/ Fri, 22 Sep 2006 08:05:12 PDT
1. Do you like animals?
Most animals, yes. I love pets, especially my own, and am interested in most others. I can't say that I particularly like animals when they practice infanticide, or are pouncing on a friend to rip them apart, but happily this is not a common occurance in my life.

2. Have you ever met an online friend in person?
Yes, although only once, at the Ohio meet. I still want to have a dA meet in Chicago.

3. Are you athletic?
I'm not athletic in the cheerleader/softball playing girl sense. I was a very serious dancer for about 11 years, which meant that I was excercising five and six times a week for three or four hours each time. Those days are over, because a teacher bluntly told me that it was pointless for me to try- I didn't have the right kind of body for ballet.
I think hearing that put me off exercise for a few years, but I now practise Yoga quite vigorously a few times a week. It appeals to me because it has poses one can work in. Running incessantly on a little sliding floor mat has no appeal.

4. Are you: thin, fat, athleticlly built etc:
In between.

5. How much do you weigh?
That obviously depends on how much I've eaten.

6. What's your height?
5'9"

7. Shoe size?
9.5 or 10, depending on the brand.

8. Girls- are you tomboyish, girly, normal, etc?
I've never claimed to be normal. I guess I'm girly, what with being a girl and all.

9. Guys- Are you girly, or guyish?
I think that if I were a guy, I would be a girly guy, since I am a girl.

10. How old are you?
19. But age is mostly mental, anyways.

11. When's your birthday?
February 24th
-

12. Do you like to receive giftart?
I think art makes a great present. I like handwork, and have been known to give people embroidered or knit things as gifts before.

13. Are you sociable?
Like most people, I enjoy socializing with friends. If you drop me in a room of chatting strangers, I usually find an excuse to leave.

14. Do you have many friends?
Many? Many compared to what?
I am not friendless, if that's what this question is covertly asking.

15. What's your race?
I don't put much value on physical race- for one, it's just a socially constructed concept, as there are no real boundaries between the 'races.' I'm some sort of European mutt in ancestry.

16. Do you like to talk on the phone?
No. And my dislike of it is palpable. I don't mind text or in-person conversations, though.

17. Are you single or taken?
Single, although anyone seeking to 'take' me would need to willing to defer to Boethius, Plato, and a large furry dog quite often.

18. Do you eat meat?
Yes, but I only buy meat from small farmers, preferably those whom I know personally. I don't think it's immoral to eat meat, but I'm not happy with the idea of throwing a bunch of chickens or cows together and making their entire lives miserable so that I can do it.

19. Are you paranoid?
Sometimes. Wait, why are you asking???

20. Do you read a lot?
During the summers, I read a whole lot. During the school year, I'm reading more Latin, Greek, and scholarly sorts of things than is healthy, and recreational reading doesn't really feel like a break.

21. Do you listen to music, what kind?
My first choice is classical, although I do branch out.

22. Do you play any instruments?
I sing- I'm a soprano, and fairly serious about it. Speaking of which, I'll be performing my first solo with my choir this Saturday. It only took me 3.5 years to get one from the director!
I played the Viola and Piano through middle school, and I still take out my koto once in a while, but without a teacher and ensemble I'm not too motivated.

23. How long have you been drawing?
I don't draw that much. I do write every day, which is a bit like drawing.

24.Whats the meaning of life?
The function of life is to produce more life, it seems.

Is this question asking why life was created, or what I hope to accomplish with my life?
In the beginning was the Word.
Superfetation of 'to hen'
And at the mensual turn of time
Produced enervate Origen.

25. Now tag five of your friends!

I think you've all been tagged.

]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10098933/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10098933/ Sun, 17 Sep 2006 08:04:21 PDT


]]> ~Vingilote http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10068624/ http://Vingilote.deviantart.com/journal/10068624/ Thu, 14 Sep 2006 09:28:45 PDT very busy, actually!

My schoolwork is a bit of a flood, which is forcing me to spend all my time dogpaddling furiously just in order to avoid drowning. I've skipped a year in my university's Latin program, so that class is all above my head and takes a disgusting amount of preparation. We're reading the earliest piece of prison literature- Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. Basically, it's like nearly every other piece of classical Latin literature- whiny men killing each other. The only difference is that in this case, he doesn't die till the end of the book.

Of course I'm being quite unfair, and it's a fascinating piece of literature and philosophy.

So, without a job (Eek!) and without more than half an hour online each day (usually during one of my classes), I'm getting almost no sleep! Hopefully this will change eventually.

The kittens are two weeks old now, and my apartment eagerly awaits their little paws.

That's about all that's been happening, but it's been more than enough! Hope you all are well. ]]> ~Vingilote