Computers choose to screw up at the worst moments. (Fortunately, mine doesn't crash often, but I do type up my responses in a document for that purpose, just in case). They just never seem to do what you want them to. Come to think of it, I still haven't seen about fixing what is wrong with my laptop battery, ahhhh ;~;
To be honest, the over-9000 character comment was quite a surprise to me, too. Clearly I really do never know when to shut up. I'm very glad that you didn't get bored, though!
The last time I was in the mountains, I was 10 or so, and it was Banff. I don't really remember much about it, so this trip was a real treat. So gorgeous, ahhhhhh. But I wish I had been able to enjoy it better. Wish I could have gone hiking. Maybe another time.
Since I grew up basically in the middle of the bush, we'd get deer and moose and bears and stuff in town all the time, so seeing them wasn't too unusual (though seeing deer so close was awesome). I always find it kind of startling when people say they haven't seen much for animals, but I guess if you live in a big-ass city it makes sense.
I kind of miss Drumheller. We would go down at least twice per year - for Christmas, and for Canada Day. I spent most of my childhood summers there, and I really miss going. Not all that fond of the roadtrip, mind you. On the other hand, I've only been to Calgary once, and that was so long ago that I can't remember it. (I've been at the airport a squillion times, but that doesn't count).
Part of the reason I try not to focus on my own past is because there's nothing much to think about. I went to school. I came home from school. I read novels of dubious quality. I wrote really awful stories (and had fun doing it). Aaaand that's it. Not much to think about. I'd rather look to the future. And the present is okay too, I guess.
Fandom: I think that when I was not in fandom, I was more productive in terms of creative output. By that I mean I wrote original things. Fanfiction is all well and good, but... it's fanfiction. So, when I wasn't in fandom, I just wrote other things... which I feel is a (slightly) better use of my time. On the other hand, I tend to get involved in a fandom when I have absolutely no original ideas whatsoever, so I guess it kind of works out in the end. I still have an idea or two filed away, but I don't know if I'm going to write them. One involved a pair of brothers who worked at a haunted restaurant. Was going to have lots of scary poltergeist activity and such. I'm not particularly good at writing horror though - maybe that's why I was never really able to get into the groove for that one. Guess I need to read more ghost stories.
The thing about reading the literature to understand the history is something that I take from my background in both classics and medieval literature. In these cases, we know what happened, but reading the literature is the best way to find out what society - or at least, the educated classes - felt about what was going on, what had happened previously, and how things should be. The literature produced by a society - novels and poetry, but also things like fairytales and epics - says quite a bit about the ideals, aspirations, thoughts of people in ways that historical records do not - because, after all, the literature is produced during that people's own time. That's why when studying Rome, for example, one shouldn't just read history books written in the 20th century - we should also read histories written by Romans, as it comments on what they thought, as well as poetry like The Aeneid, as it speaks to the ways that the powerful classes thought things should be - and similarly, but a bit differently, Catullus's love poems say more about relationships between the sexes in his time than any history book ever could.
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Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.
Your comment of 9820 characters exceeds the maximum character length of 4300.
Date: 2009-08-03 06:56 am (UTC)To be honest, the over-9000 character comment was quite a surprise to me, too. Clearly I really do never know when to shut up. I'm very glad that you didn't get bored, though!
The last time I was in the mountains, I was 10 or so, and it was Banff. I don't really remember much about it, so this trip was a real treat. So gorgeous, ahhhhhh. But I wish I had been able to enjoy it better. Wish I could have gone hiking. Maybe another time.
Since I grew up basically in the middle of the bush, we'd get deer and moose and bears and stuff in town all the time, so seeing them wasn't too unusual (though seeing deer so close was awesome). I always find it kind of startling when people say they haven't seen much for animals, but I guess if you live in a big-ass city it makes sense.
I kind of miss Drumheller. We would go down at least twice per year - for Christmas, and for Canada Day. I spent most of my childhood summers there, and I really miss going. Not all that fond of the roadtrip, mind you. On the other hand, I've only been to Calgary once, and that was so long ago that I can't remember it. (I've been at the airport a squillion times, but that doesn't count).
Part of the reason I try not to focus on my own past is because there's nothing much to think about. I went to school. I came home from school. I read novels of dubious quality. I wrote really awful stories (and had fun doing it). Aaaand that's it. Not much to think about. I'd rather look to the future. And the present is okay too, I guess.
Fandom: I think that when I was not in fandom, I was more productive in terms of creative output. By that I mean I wrote original things. Fanfiction is all well and good, but... it's fanfiction. So, when I wasn't in fandom, I just wrote other things... which I feel is a (slightly) better use of my time. On the other hand, I tend to get involved in a fandom when I have absolutely no original ideas whatsoever, so I guess it kind of works out in the end. I still have an idea or two filed away, but I don't know if I'm going to write them. One involved a pair of brothers who worked at a haunted restaurant. Was going to have lots of scary poltergeist activity and such. I'm not particularly good at writing horror though - maybe that's why I was never really able to get into the groove for that one. Guess I need to read more ghost stories.
The thing about reading the literature to understand the history is something that I take from my background in both classics and medieval literature. In these cases, we know what happened, but reading the literature is the best way to find out what society - or at least, the educated classes - felt about what was going on, what had happened previously, and how things should be. The literature produced by a society - novels and poetry, but also things like fairytales and epics - says quite a bit about the ideals, aspirations, thoughts of people in ways that historical records do not - because, after all, the literature is produced during that people's own time. That's why when studying Rome, for example, one shouldn't just read history books written in the 20th century - we should also read histories written by Romans, as it comments on what they thought, as well as poetry like The Aeneid, as it speaks to the ways that the powerful classes thought things should be - and similarly, but a bit differently, Catullus's love poems say more about relationships between the sexes in his time than any history book ever could.