lucymonster | Entries tagged with memes

I’m behind on comments and replies because No Brain, but

osprey_archer has reliably informed me that we’re all making book lists to compare with each other. So here’s mine. Come tell me how many we have in common! Then make one of your own and tell me so I have more clicky boxes to occupy my brain-free skull cavity!

→ Comment with "Questions, please!"
→ I'll respond by asking you five questions so I can get to know you better.
→ Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
→ Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions.

My questions, from

dr_zook:

1) Which three Australian things are notoriously underrated by non-Australians?

- Our...uh, forthright style of government messaging, which is so underrated that it caused an actual scandal when we tried to export a little bit of it to England. (The linked post gives the impression that the ads are a relic of the past, but many of them are very much still around today.)

- The huntsman spider. Listen: these little brothers are the guys you actually WANT in your house. They’re harmless to humans and pay their rent by munching on other pests. They’re also, by spider standards, incredibly cute. I get that the size can be a little alarming, and I know Australian spiders get a bad rap overseas, but really!! These ones are fine!!!

- I know this is such a cliche but I HAVE to say it: Vegemite. Youse just don’t know how to eat it, is the problem. I’ve seen so many videos of foreigners eating Vegemite right off the spoon and then calling it disgusting, which, like, no shit! That’s not what it’s for! Vegemite doesn’t disclose its virtues until you spread it thinly on hot toast with plenty of butter. It’s savoury and salty with a deep, rich flavour that simply can’t be imitated, even by self-professed Vegemite alternatives. It’s also amazing stirred into soups and stews for added punch.

2) What's your favourite thing to put on your bun/slice of bread?

Other than Vegemite? Cheese. So much cheese. Right now my favourite snack is a slice of rye bread, lightly toasted, with Camembert spread over it like thick butter and drizzled with honey.

3) What's the musical overlap between and your kids?

Quite a bit, at the moment! We listen to a lot of heavy metal and goth rock together: Iron Maiden, Unto Others, Sonja, Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim and Rope Sect are all on regular rotation. I usually try them on whatever I’m currently into (within certain limits: I don’t play them extreme metal, or anything I feel is too graphic or explicitly dark) and they pretty quickly let me know if they like it or not.

And I’m not going to lie to you, the taste exchange does occasionally go both ways. Some of those Wiggles songs are real bangers.

4) Do you have a Star Wars crossover fic you'd like to recommend?

A few years back, LearnedFoot gifted me a Star Wars/Doctor Who crossover that to this day remains one of my favourite things ever. Ever wondered how differently the sequels might have ended if they’d only set the Doctor loose on Kylo Ren? Wonder no longer! It is gorgeous and makes me cry a lot.

5) Who was your last fictional/literary crush?

I had to scroll back through my own blog to remember who the last one was: Qimir, from Star Wars: The Acolyte. But it was a fleeting passion; Kylo Ren still reigns supreme in my heart.

Copying my answers to this tagging meme on tumblr. Please steal at will, I'd love to hear all your answers! <3

1) The Last book I read:

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. I honestly don't know how I got this far in life without reading it given my interest in war history, but oh well - I've read it now, and it was every bit as devastating and wonderful as expected.

2) A book I recommend:

Oh, come on, this isn't a fair question. Who am I recommending it to? And for what purpose? My book recs come tailored, dammit!

For the sake of the game I'm going to plug Star Wars Propaganda, which combines two of my very favourite topics: space wizards and politics! It's also very nicely printed and comes with a bunch of posters included so that you, like me, can live in a house plastered with stormtrooper recruitment posters.

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. It actually took me a while to get into - I found the early chapters so off-putting I nearly gave up - but as soon as the plot kicked off, I was utterly obsessed. I mean keeping it on my person at all times, reading while walking to the supermarket, cooking dinner one-handed while propping it open with the other obsessed. Same for Harrow and Nona.

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more):

War by Sebastian Junger. The title makes it sound vast, but it's actually a very specific and self-contained sort of nonfiction character study, of a US infantry platoon stationed in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan. It's a powerful read, and very useful if you're someone who spends a lot of time trying to access the mindset of soldiers for your own storytelling purposes.

5) A book on my TBR:

Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood, though it has slipped somewhat down my priority list since I opened the front jacket to find a note from the author warning that it departs from her usual formula. Sincere props to her for expanding her creative horizons, but the days I reach for an Ali Hazelwood novel are the same days I skip supper in favour of shovelling ice cream straight in my mouth from the tub, which are emphatically NOT days on which I'm open to surprises. The formula is the whole appeal.

6) A book I’ve put down:

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine, but I think that was a mistake. It's the sequel to a novel I enjoyed a lot but had some lingering quibbles with, and it was a non-renewable library loan due to the reserve queue, so I took that as a sign to give up - only I keep thinking about it every now and then, wondering how the space lesbians are coping with the alien invasion. I might have to rejoin the queue again myself.

7) A book on my wish list:

A Rome of One's Own: The Forgotten Women of the Roman Empire by Emma Southon. Saw on a friend's blog (

osprey_archer it was probably you); saw again on a Goodreads rec list; want.

8) A favorite book from childhood:

The Silver Brumby by Elyne Mitchell captured my imagination so vividly, it was responsible for more than one twisted ankle when I would tear around the back garden jumping over too-high obstacles and pretending I was Thowra.

9) A book you would give to a friend:

The last book I did give to a friend was the Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith novelisation, and the friend was my sister, and she requested it for her birthday. Apparently it's an absolute banger of a novelisation, especially if you like Obi-Wan/Anakin.

10) A book of poetry or lyrics that you own:

Milton's Poetical Works. I am, ever so slowly, picking away at Paradise Lost - it's SO FREAKING GOOD, but I really have to be in the right mood.

11) A nonfiction book you own:

Significantly more than half my library is nonfiction, but I'll pick one I'm currently working on: 1914-1918 by David Stevenson. It's a solid read, in the sense of both 'this is sound history writing' and 'holy fuck there are a lot of pages in this thing'.

12) What are you currently reading:

Other than above, I'm also partway through From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars by Virginia Hanlon Grohl. All these famous musical legends probably belong right up the top on the list of people I've never pictured as babies, but it's a really fun, charming read so far.

13) What are you planning on reading next?

I'm on a bit of a church kick at the moment - the first of a couple of parcels of theology books I ordered have just arrived this afternoon, so I'll be getting stuck into those.

I'm also sorely tempted to do a Lord of the Rings reread. I've been really trying to prioritise new-to-me fiction this year, but what can you do? The heart wants what it wants.

Taken from

delphi!

🎶 Last song I listened to: The Hundred Days Offensive by 1914.

📺 Currently reading/playing/watching: I have several books on the go, but the last one I opened was All Quiet on the Western Front. Not really watching or playing anything at the moment. I recently tried to get back into Jedi: Survivor, but the things that annoyed me about it last time are still annoying so I didn’t get far.

🌶️ Sweet/Savory/Spicy?: All of them! I’m sorry, I know that’s a copout, food is just too good what can I say. At gunpoint I guess I would jettison spicy but it would suck.

❤️ Relationship status: Married with kids.

🤩 Current obsession: Recently read a novel (which I hope to review soon in a separate post) that has me obsessing over a) the OED and b) WWI. Star Wars is also still churning away in the background, as always.

Jumping on the bandwagon because this meme has been all over my reading page!

Three Ships

Reylo (Star Wars Sequels): Actual cosmic soulmates kept apart by ~~fate~~ ~~duty~~ Kylo’s shitty, shitty life choices. Came for the heartache, stayed for the heartache.

Din/Bo-Katan (The Mandalorian): I shipped this from the moment Bo-Katan swaggered onto the screen, and then season three came and piled on the loyalty kink so thick I nearly died.

Byakuya/Renji (Bleach): What if loyalty kink and lovers kept apart by fate/duty/shitty life choices? This is one of those ships that is probably going to simmer in the back of my mind for the rest of eternity, even though I’ve pretty much 100% moved on from the rest of the canon.

First ever ship: James/Lily (Harry Potter). The day I found Mugglenet and learnt that other people shared my obsession with what happened between Lily’s rejection of James at age fifteen and their marriage several years later - that they were publishing their fantasies about it for everyone else to read - was the day transformative fandom sank its claws into me too deep to ever let go.

Last song: Demonon Vrosis - Rotting Christ

Last film: A documentary about a tragedy to which I am tangentially connected enough that watching it was a bad idea. I can’t really blog about it without halfway doxxing myself, but I don’t want to anyway because seeing the fan community discuss it all over social media like an ep of their favourite show is a not insignificant part of what’s fucking me up.

Currently reading: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. Not far enough in yet to know if I like it, but the aesthetic is gorgeous.

Currently watching: Nothing, really. I still have one episode left of OFMD season two but I’m so turned off by the spoilers that I probably won’t bother.

Currently consuming: A spoonful of bolognaise sauce, to check the seasoning. It’s nearly ready.

Currently craving: An uninterrupted night’s sleep but that’s not going to happen lmao.

~~there's no such thing as a post you can't shoehorn a black metal reference into~~

Question meme via

snickfic: What's one of your favorite shippy moments for your ship? Why do you love it?

On the one hand this was hard to pick because every moment Rey and Kylo are on screen together is my favourite shippy moment, but on the other hand there's one really obvious answer which is the moment that first set me seriously shipping them: the aftermath of the throne room fight scene in The Last Jedi, when Kylo asks Rey to join him in ruling the galaxy.

Watch on YouTube

I cannot even TELL you guys how hard this scene hit me when I first saw it in the cinema. The Reylo vibes had been creeping up all movie, through a sequence of psychic bond moments that started out hostile and gradually became more and more intimate. That sense of togetherness, of mutual understanding, culminated in a breathtaking battle scene during which they fought almost like the two of them were one person, swapping weapons and watching each other's backs and at one point Rey even using Kylo's body as a springboard for her next attack. It seemed like an absolutely foregone conclusion that they were on the same side now, on the same page, ready to join forces for good.

And then, instead ... that. Not only are they not on the same page, they're not even reading the same book. Kylo's idea of the narrative he's living in is so wildly different from Rey's that there's no conceivable space for compromise: just like that, they're enemies again. But they both so desperately, desperately want not to be. They beg and plead (and in Kylo's case, viciously manipulate) with all their might, each hoping against hope that they can convince the other to abandon their convictions and change course.

IDK, man, I'm just so weak for unfulfilled yearning and the beautiful, self-destructive fuckedup-ness of simultaneously loving someone while actively wanting to destroy everything they stand for. The canonical soulbond by itself might have piqued my interest for a short while, but it's this scene in all its messy glory that tipped me over into Forever OTP territory.

pauraque gave me these five questions to answer! I'll come up with five questions for the first five people who ask, so please comment if you want to play.

1) If you could visit a fictional world, where would you go? Would you want to live there or just vacation?

Ever since I read Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series as a kid, I dreamed of visiting the Clayr's library. Mysteries spellbooks, forgotten lore, deep secret rooms full of undiscovered magic! I think practically speaking I'd have to go live there for good, since I'd need years of in-world study to be able to access the really cool stuff.

That's the answer I want to give. But I think really what I'd like most is to go to Tolkien's Hobbiton for a few weeks and let some small, round innkeeper stuff me full with six good meals a day between gentle hikes in the lush green countryside.

2) What's a book you've read that started out strong but didn't stick the ending?

I feel like I have this experience quite often, actually! It could be because endings are hard, but I think at least some of the blame has to go to my tendency to get overinvested and run away with my expectations. Too often once I've decided how I want things to go, any departure - even one of objectively good quality - is likely to leave me a bit disappointed.

But one book I think I can accuse without injustice of going bad at the end is a nonfiction one: Area 51 by Annie Jacobsen. After really loving her Operation Paperclip, I was eager for more hard-hitting, rigorously sourced investigative journalism about US government and military corruption, and for the most part that's what I got. But the ending ... oh man. I'm not sure it does justice to say the book didn't stick its landing; more like it quit gymnastics mid-vault and decided to switch to freestyle swimming, with exactly as much topsy-turvy flailing of arms as the mental image implies. In the last chapter or two it went full-tilt, bizarro-world conspiracy theorist about aliens and Soviet hoaxes. It's years now since I read it but I still remember that feeling of whiplash as if it were yesterday.

3) Do you have a sweet tooth? What kind of sweets do you like?

You know, I never used to have a sweet tooth! Not that long ago, I had only a handful of sweet recipes in any kind of rotation, and my go-to junk foods were mostly salty. But I developed fierce sugar cravings during pregnancy and so far they seem to have long outlived the hormonal trigger. I've become obsessed with pastries and cakes, especially the kinds of delicate layered sponge cakes that I used to snub my nose at in patisseries. A few weeks ago, a local cafe made the most amazing layered strawberry cake with real fresh strawberries that I'm desperate to learn how to bake for myself. I'm a big fan of thick, doughy cookies and really bitey lemon curd tarts. Supermarket-wise I love mars bars, oreos and tim-tams (I'm pretty sure they deport you from Australia if you don't like tim-tams). Sometimes - I'm not too proud to admit this - I eat nutella straight off the spoon.

4) What's a death metal band or album you would recommend to someone new to the genre?

The Jester Race was my immediate first thought, not least because it's one of the very first death metal albums I fell in love with. In Flames helped pioneer what's known as the Gothenburg style of melodic death metal, which is gentler and - per the name - more melodic than a lot of other death metal. There's a haunting, melancholy beauty to it that I think has a good chance of translating even to someone who's not used to the genre and its quirks.

Since it's a fairly large understatement to call death metal an acquired taste, one other thing I might suggest for someone new to the genre - if they were making a project of it, rather than just taking a peek - is to spend some time easing in with more mainstream metal bands, even if they're not ultimately what I would single out as my forever favourites. Most metalheads have their 'gateway bands' that helped acclimate them to the growling and fast tempos before they plunged in the deep end. I was already in love with harsh vocals via the emo/screamo scene before I came to metal, but that path has limited appeal past the teenage years, lol. Bands like Trivium and Lamb of God are like the pop music of the metal world - they're commercial and broadly accessible, and might make the bridge between clean singing and hrrrr grrrr blrrrrrrrrgh aaaargh seem more crossable for people who aren't used to it. Then of course there's the 'big four' of thrash metal - Anthrax, Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth - which, aside from being required reading or anyone who wants to understand extreme metal's origins, are a good first taster for the fast tempos and aggressive guitar styles that are synonymous with the genre.

But as a standalone sample album, yeah, I'm sticking with Jester Race. The opening track, Moonshield, is to this day one of my all-time favourites.

5) What's something you cooked recently that came out amazing?

After years spent poring greedily over feast scene after feast scene in Harry Potter, I recently decided to try making treacle tart! Turns out treacle is just golden syrup, which can be had on any supermarket shelf - in Australia, at least. A lot of the recipes I came across were from American food bloggers who had to courageously make their own.

Anyway, it took two tries to make, because I dropped the first pie crust fresh out of the oven and had to make a whole new batch of pastry from scratch. But the results were more than worth the extra effort. It wasn't sickly-sweet, like I feared it might be from the ingredients list. The lemon in the filling gave it a beautiful, rounded citrus flavour, and it was almost as delicious reheated as it was fresh. I've always found pastry too much of a faff for the everyday, but I'll just have to get over that, because I need more of this tart in my life.

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teach me the art of war

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