Denzil

My uncle was an inventor and a sailor. He thought deeply. He lived every second with appreciation and his wonderful laugh. Everything was an adventure; everything was of fine quality; everything had been earned. He came from a prairie shanty made of sod with no electricity or plumbing and a religion that condemned movies and music as sinful. He received the highest accolades and awards possible in motion picture and sound technology. He loved his family, and he loved his friends. He loved me and did all he could for me, helping me to become whatever good I am today. His middle name signified the North Star, and this pleased him.

This is his favourite poem. He named his boats after it.

Invictus - William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Here he is, laughing with his friends on his boat last October with little Snapey, who was dear to him, small as he is.



Thank you for all your kind good wishes. I will respond very soon. If you light candles, please light a candle for him, or take a drink, if you drink at all.

How he loved the fourth of July. He held it de rigeur to have fried chicken, potato salad, bean salad, fireworks and beer. I shall have those things tomorrow (except the fireworks, which are illegal here and thus a wee bit tricky.)

My uncle passed away this evening.
I don't think anyone has influenced my life more.
I guess all the amazing family stories are just mine now.
This was not unexpected.

The last time we spoke he said, "Somebody has put me to bed."

And I said, "I will let you sleep then, but you know that I love you very much, right?"

"Yes, I know that very much. I love you very much, too."

My uncle was wonderful and amazing.

revel_infinitus!

If I were a month, I'd be ...August
If I were a day of the week, I'd be ...Sunday
If I were a time of day, I'd be ...02:00
If I were a planet, I'd be ...Neptune
If I were a direction, I'd be ...oblique
If I were a piece of furniture, I'd be ...a heavy baroque mahogany desk
If I were a liquid, I'd be ...Mercury
If I were a gemstone, I'd be ...white sapphire
If I were a tree, I'd be ...ash
If I were a flower, I'd be ...passiflora - not for the name but for the appearance
If I were a kind of weather, I'd be ...warm wind at twilight
If I were a musical instrument, I'd be ...a trumpet
If I were a color, I'd be ...viridian
If I were an emotion, I'd ...determined
If I were a fruit, I'd be ...a green zebra tomato
If I were a sound, I'd be ...a Welsh boys' choir
If I were an element, I'd be ...Mercury again?
If I were a food, I'd be ...morel mushrooms
If I were a place, I'd be ...Cornish cliffs and the land above them
If I were a material, I'd be ...natural dark wool
If I were a taste, I'd taste ...wholesome yet rich
If I were a scent, I'd be ...BPAL's Tombstone
If I were an animal, I'd be ...a beagle
If I were a body part, I'd be ...a brain
If I were a facial expression ...a raised eyebrow
If I were a song, I'd be ...something by Thomas Moore, but done in a punk style
If I were a pair of shoes, I'd be ..leather hiking boots
If I were a website I'd be ... Write or Die
If I were a TV show I'd be ...Quantum Leap
If I were an author I'd be ...me
If I were a painting I'd be ...something formal and allusive but unlikely by J-L David

Alright. I rarely rec anything because reccing means I am not reccing something else. But this story is so amazing I urge you all to run to read it. I did not write it, despite the title. It's got... everything a good story should. It's got absolutely original symbolism, imagery, allusion, characterisation. It is complex, lyrical. It's just... amazing. I tried to comment but I couldn't really say enough and I was stilted... Go! Read!

The Janus Rose

It is the latest entry in the Severus' Shorts birthday celebration.

From Michael Weber's Law and Magic blog:
Michael Weber is a lawyer, and was magic advisor for The Prestige and The Illusionist. Picture of him and little Snapey is coming soon to a journal near you. He showed me how to dismantle a Faro shuffle - that'll be three years of practice for me!

The Law and Harry Potter

Edited by: Jeffrey E. Thomas, Franklin G. Snyder

Forthcoming January 2010 • paper • ISBN: 978-1-59460-645-8 • LCCN 2009041207

Order 'The Law and Harry Potter'

Order now with 10% Internet Discount

This volume considers the depiction of law and legal institutions in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels. It contains more than twenty chapters by legal academics from the U.S. and abroad. The chapters are organized in five sections: Legal Traditions and Institutions, Crimes and Punishments, Harry Potter and Identity, the Wizard Economy, and Harry Potter as an Archetype. Some chapters analyze the way law and legal institutions are portrayed, and what these portrayals teach us about concepts such as morality, justice, and difference. Other chapters use examples from the narratives to illustrate or analyze legal issues, such as human rights, actual innocence, and legal pedagogy. The volume is suitable for undergraduate or law school courses, and will be of interest to those Harry Potter fans who also have an interest in law and the legal profession.

... from the Carolina Academic Press
Man, I can't wait to read it!

I made a new banner for Dark Prince Rising.

And a new Affiliate banner.



Please click on the latter for the former on the community. It is large, so I have not posted it here.

I have been making these icons for some time. Please take them to use if you wish. If you do, please credit "by <lj user="janus">." If you would let me know which you use in the comments, that would be wonderful as I am curious. They are all original, and I did the screen captures myself, though obviously not the photos, which are from google or captured from youtube. Thank you very kindly. If you have any questions about any of them, please ask.

( cut for 42 icons )

Meme stolen from several people.

1. Pick 10 of your favorite books or series.
2. Post the first sentence of each book. (If one sentence seems too short, post two or three!)
3. Let everyone try to guess the titles and authors of your books.

As they are guessed, I will strike them through and put the answers beside them. I have ignored prefaces for the most part, in favour of lyrical true first lines. The fourth is not lyrical, but it is one of my favourites and I cannot leave it out. The third says more than it seems to say about the book.


1. Imagine that you are reading a book about the Cosmos. You find it so interesting that you got out and buy a telescope. One fine clear moonless night you set up your telescope and focus it on the brightest star in the sky.

2. This is the first time I've worked without a net. I want to tell the truth. At the same time, I don't want to start a feeding frenzy. You stick your neck out and you know what happens. It's obvious.

3. Now that the dust has settled, we can begin to look at our situation. Now that the last red tile has been laid out on the roof of the New House, now that the marriage contract is four years old. The town smells of summer, not very pleasant, that is, but the same as last year, the same as the years that follow. The New House smells of resin and wax polish; it has the sulphurous odor of family quarrels brewing.

4. "The book must be dropped."
"No, Arthur!"
"Perhaps only for a time. But for the present, it must be dropped. I need time to think."
The three trustees in the big penthouse drawing-room were beginning to shout, which destroyed all atmosphere of a business meeting - not that such an atmosphere had ever been strong.

5. In January 1942 I was escorted to the war by my parents in case I couldn't find it or met with accident on the way. In one hand I clutched my railway warrant - the first prize I had ever won; in the other I held a carefully wrapped black-market chicken.

6. There was a white horse, on a quiet winter morning when the snow covered the streets gently and was not deep, and the sky was swept with stars, except in the east, where dawn was beginning to light in a blue flood. The air was motionless, but would soon start to move as the sun came upand winds from Canada came charging down the Hudson.

7. Does such a thing as "the fatal flaw." that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.

8. The candleflame and the image of the candleflame caught in the pierglass twisted and righted when he entered the hall and again when he shut the door. He took off his hat and came slowly forward. The floorboards creaked under his boots. In his black suit he stood in the dark glass where the lilies leaned so palely from their waisted cutglass vase.

9. I shall begin my story with an experience I had when I was ten and attended our town's small Latin school.

The sweetness of many things from that time still stirs and touches me with melancholy; dark and well-lighted alleys, houses and towers, chimes and faces, rooms rich and comfortable, warm and relaxed, rooms pregnant with secrets.

10. Some of the evil of my tale may have been inherent in our circumstances. For years we lived anyhow with one another in the naked desert, under the indifferent heaven. By day the hot sun fermented us; and we were dizzied by the beating wind. At night we were stained by dew, and shamed into pettiness by the innumerable silences of stars.

So, any guesses?

Greetings!
I've had a great deal of stress lately. My job changed suddenly. I've not been posting as much as I would have liked.
But tomorrow I am going on vacation! For a whole month! I saved up holidays for two years!
It is a magic convention on a ship, going down to LA and then I am staying with my dear Uncle and Aunt in Oceanside.
I will be offline until the 26th, or possibly the 27th or 28th, depending on internet availability in LA.

I'm working on some fests.
The Severus Big Bang Birthday Bash severusbigbang on insanejournal and livejournal. I've three projects there. One is going really well and makes me happy. The others I've not started.
Severus' Shorts severus_shorts on livejournal. I have a story of one of Severus' birthdays to write there.
HP Cross Gen Fest hp_cross_fest, which I have half-written - something totally different.
Snapely Holidays snapelyholidays on livejournal and insanejournal.

There are various things I have written in my head but that I have not typed up yet. Some for me, some for John, some for Sev. I hope to get a lot of work done.

And I will see my dear relations, and my dear friend also.

If you live near Oceanside, or San Diego, let me know and maybe we can work out some way to meet! I will be in LA also, but it is only a day or so.

I feel strange, and I still cannot believe I really get to go. Really? Me?

Best wishes and warm thoughts to you all. I should be back online in a few days.

I am here. Still reading everything. I'm having a tough time at work - my job changed suddenly.
I've not been writing so much.
Here are some eggs.
lil!sevvie for severusbigbang is progressing at least. A successful craft project. He's developing personality.
Going to the magic convention soon, and California.
I will write a lot there.
I'm performing a 15 minute magic set at the picnic this Sunday.

Ask me my fannish Top Five [Whatevers]. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post.

from obsessed1

Comment on this post saying you want a letter - I'll give you one, then post to your journal your five favorite songs that begin with that letter - along with downloads if you like. Or music videos... whatever works!

( cut for songs brought to you by the letter L and the number 7. what SEVEN? well, it looks like an L upside down. )

So: Is anyone going to Pride tomorrow? Or are there cool events Monday afternoon/evening? Or tonight? I am likely going to the festival tomorrow. Is there no pancake breakfast the morning of the parade this year? Possibly I will watch the parade, but it is very hot to sit so long in the open sun. Possibly I will go to the Picnic in the Park (or is that women only?)

Of course I am excited. Everything is exciting.

Severus was the big hit of the Magic Convention Cruise!
All the magicians were amazed and impressed with his levitation trick!

Watch it being drawn HERE!

I'm having computer problems with the heat, but Severus was counting on me to give him a proper holiday! How could I let him down? I'm giving him my holiday.

Come to mctabby's
The Sorting Cat's Birthday HP Drabblethon 5!

Despite my writer's block (no excuse for the paucity of writing, I know, alas, alack) I have signed up, excitedly, gleefully, joyously.

And so should YOU!

Hurrah!

(new icon. from the fair last weekend. red shirt day! note the enormous steam-punk goggles)

Testing. Via borrowed iPhone. Will I get an iPhone? Maybe. I'm hopeful. I've not had aphone for. Some time.

Sign-ups open until June 30!

There is half a month left for sign ups, time enough to spread the word and invite your friends.

Sign ups are open for writers, artists/artisans and betas/cheerleaders.
This isn't a traditional big bang, we are open to almost anything. We want for our birthday boy to have a resounding bang of your creativity as a gift, no matter which genre or ship you prefer.

So, please read the Rules and our steadily growing FAQ, and sign up.

The sign up posts can be found here:

For fic: Writer sign up page

For art and crafts: Artist and artisan sign up page

For betas and cheerleaders: Beta and cheerleader sign up page

Though you may not have time or inclination to sign up to write, do artwork, or make something special, we enthusiastically welcome betas and cheerleaders!

As seen on odogoddess's journal:

Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you -- The first 15 you can recall in 15 minutes.

1. Lost in the Cosmos by Walker Percy
2. Panama by Thomas McGuane
3. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
4. What's Bred in the Bone by Robertson Davies
5. Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss
6. Harris' Principles and Practices of Dentistry by Chapin Aaron Harris
7. Between Silk and Cyanide by Leo Marks
8. The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
9. Log of a Sea Waif by Frank Thomas Bullen
10. The Wreckers of Pengarth by Michael Gibson
11. The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
12. My Name Is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
13. Also Sprach Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
14. The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
15. The Grey King by Susan Cooper

I went through these quickly, so they may not represent ultimate answers. I would say one of the Harry Potter books, but fan-fic was better than the books. Some taught me, some I tried to emulate, some influenced me greatly as a child. Some have ideas I considered deeply. Some illuminated. Some had characters with whom I felt sympathy, as if they might have understood me. Some formed example. One is a terrible book which I nonetheless love. You can guess if you want. Or, ask and I will tell you about them.

Meme meme!
from kikibug13
Name a character that you know I write or have written, and I'll tell you:

a. What initially prompted me to like the character enough to write about him/her.
b. One of his/her best traits.
c. One of his/her worst traits.
d. How easy/difficult I find it to write the character.
e. The story/thread/chapter/post/paragraph/tag/phrase where I feel that I truly captured the character.
f. My plans (if any) to write the character in the near future

Since there are new friends in this fine new world, here is a 'meme!'

created by bewarethesmirk

Very simply: ask me something! It can be about fandom, writing, real life, whatever.
I reserve the right to answer cryptically. ;^)

Yes, I am still excited.

• 19:00 @rude_not_ginger I just had tropical hawaiian pizza! I was hungry too! #

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• 10:12 It is 'Free Comic Book Day!' This has been a Public Service Announcement. #
• 10:12 off to Saturday Morning Breakfast Cartoons! With cool cereal! #
• 10:13 Sev's Dreamwidth account is all set up. just a wee bit of fine-tuning. Dreamwidth is awesome! Much much better. #
• 10:58 I love Saturday Morning Breakfast Cartoons. The cereal is excellent. I am a Second Level Wizard. And internetz! Whoa! Great! #

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• 07:35 I'm on dreamwidth! Same names! If you are here I will find you and add you very soon! #
• 07:37 if you have an ij, lj or dreamwidth account and we've never discussed it, let me know! (if you wish) #
• 07:39 Mayday today! Walpurgis, Beltane! Hurrah! It is a very optimistic day! Yes, I celebrate when I can. The holiday in our Cornish town is May 8 #

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• 15:55 @muonzoo Hey, Welcome Alan! Good to see you here! Just on my break. 8^) #
• 19:19 I am doing my taxes! #
• 07:31 I have just been reminded: Walpurgisnacht tonight! How quickly time goes! Maybe my wand will come today. #

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• 18:41 Welcome Sterling! I'm your *second* follower! #
• 20:00 @magicsterling Kurt Tucholsky was disturbed by the burning of his books and those of his friends., some imprisoned and some killed. #
• 20:02 My uncle liked Tucholsky. No one refers to him now. #

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• 20:22 @severed_lies It would be so cool if I could exercise my natural night-owl tendencies! #
• 21:29 @miss_primavera Welcome back! I missed you very much! #

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• 20:09 @jael You are allowed to follow people! Twitter is a way to keep in contact, like many other things we have! #
• 20:24 @jael 900 people! Wow, that's... a lot! Mostly the people I follow are friends, but there is a band and Neil Gaimon and a couple of others. #

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• 15:07 @severed_lies Brilliant! I'm so glad to have found you! #
• 09:45 @jael was it mental health camp online? that's pretty cool. #
• 09:51 I'm working on a snape action figure. #
• 10:04 @rude_not_ginger sounds wonderful! I am still working at opening my eyes. 8^) #
• 11:05 bpal of the day is Serpents with Glittering Eyes and Forky Tongues! #

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• 18:11 bpal of the day is Tombstone! #
• 18:11 @sdanic Hey! Congratulations! That's great! It has seemed such a short amount of time to me! And now you have your degree! #
• 09:50 today's bpal is samhainophobia! we all like it. #
• 09:55 there is a strong hint of clove in samhainophobia. which pleases john. sev likes it on principal and for its medley. and I just like it. #

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• 13:26 @bardsong I think you should read MarK Helprin's 'A Winter's Tale.' #

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• 19:38 As per the book meme, the most embarrassing gap in my reading history is Oswald Spengler's 'Decline of the West.' I never found it. #
• 22:40 @miss_primavera those plotless NYC stories are considered the epitomy of writing here and are the standard by which literature is measured #
• 11:11 @racheline_m Sometimes the air feels just like California. I love it when that happens. #

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• 21:43 @bardsong It is a fine blog. best to be proud. 8^) #

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My position was extended at work. I was nervous and am now relieved but my eye is still twitching.

Sometimes the clouds look like the ocean and I can pretend I am in California.

Bunny pictures were good this week.

I called my cousin for his birthday. He is excellent.

Does anyone have a dreamwidth invitation code? I will make a new Horcrux.

• 15:16 bpal of the day is stormhold + graveyard dirt again. it's a great combo! #
• 17:04 I just sorted out all my magic supplies. 8^) It was fun and I found something cool I had forgotten. #
• 17:23 @miss_primavera It was a merry trick where duplicate objects appear from their reflections in a mirror. #
• 23:10 All my journals are syncronised. The Horcrux is in place. John's Severus' and mine. And they are backed up in folders and on a zipdrive. #

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• 18:51 Las Vegas is chock full of M&Ms. #

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• 07:36 @doctorambient Albuquerque is cool because that is where Doc Holliday brought Wyatt et al. after Tombstone to his friend Miguel Otero. #

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• 14:28 Gellert is having an ebil villain discussion with the sorting hat. I believe I see clearly why he is so rarely played... #
• 18:23 I also really really wish I didn't have to got to work tomorrow. The weekend is supposed to be recovering from the week. I'm not recovered. #
• 19:10 I have managed to stop chewing my fingernails. I do this periodically. It is better for the magic. #
• 22:00 Hurrah! The Mentalist is on! #

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• 20:30 bpal of the day is Tombstone. #
• 20:31 I had a cup of coffee today. Sometimes coffee gives me migraines. It made my ears ring and it is driving me crazy. Crazy, I tell you! #
• 20:34 in better news: Sev has a Draco friend to whom he is talking, the essay is going well (I think and trust), and I am making spaghetti. #
• 21:25 @racheline_m T! people are pretty much the same across the board(s). But some are always worth it all. #
• 21:58 capellini, mushrooms, onions, avocado, lima beams, cheese, orange-sesame dressing #

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• 13:30 @SusanMain Hello Susan! #
• 13:32 Bpal yesterday was gelt + pumpkin patch 4 (yummy.) today it is the host of air + non-bpal lavender (relaxy.) #
• 13:34 I'm writing long meta thingies about sev. I wrote a 1000 word 'essay' and got back 2000. now I must write 4000 in reply? I like it... #
• 13:36 fictioncircus.com/news.php?id=334&mode=one This book: 'The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters' looks excellent! #
• 19:06 @miss_primavera that is DEFINITELY the cutest ever. aw, the wee bears! that one is Smiling. awwwww. #

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from shantih

Which Sad Mediævalist Archetype Do You Embody?

You are the Useless Antiquarian. When not puzzling over your pet interest-- perhaps the upper left panel on the third window on the north side of the choir in Amiens Cathedral, or the use of the genitive plural in the works of Pseudo Fredegar, or line 12 of "The Battle of Maldon," or the exact price of a loaf of bread in Naples in June, 1323-- you probably aren't doing anything, because you have no life. Your interest in your topic is a pure and beautiful thing. Unfortunately for you, no one else cares. At Kalamazoo or Leeds, chances are that the three people who came to your panel were either there to hear someone else or walked in by accident. You probably don't have a job or will shortly be unemployed, but at least you'll have your pet obsession to console you.

Alas, its on facebook. Do you have facebook?
Take the Test HERE!!!

• 05:50 @miss_primavera *huggles you through twitter* #

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• 07:56 @miss_primavera It's true.I haven't gone on vacation, so I haven't been bitten by a shark.I was wondering why I had no tooth marks on my leg #

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*Today we had a magic club executive semi-meeting where we took many photographs. So here is finally one of me as a magician.
*In other news, I had a dream I think I want to write about. There is so much demanding to be written and so little opportunity to simply sit down and write.
*It is a very busy season at work. Did I mention I had gotten a small promotion for the January - May period? It is really good and my manager is wonderful.
*Kramien's Jamboree - 'magic camp' was cancelled this year. It is the high point of the year and I look forward to it more than Christmas. The economy was cited as the reason for the cancellation.
*I have a new 'muse.' Gellert Grindelwald magismagus. Actually, that was what prompted the dream (idyll/nightmare.) Magis is explained (below) from Wikipedia. Magus is obvious. It was shantih's idea. HERE is his application. It is all I have done with him yet, though I am considering charloft. I did make icons, at least.



Magis (pronounced "màh-gis") is a Jesuit phrase that means "the more." It is taken from Ad majorem Dei gloriam, a Latin phrase meaning "for the greater glory of God." Magis refers to the philosophy of doing more, for Christ, and therefore for others. It is an expression of an aspiration and inspiration. It relates to forming the ideal society centered around Jesus Christ. I.e. "For The Greater Good."

• 12:26 I am playing with my bpal imps. bpal of the day is stormhold. gellert likes it. #
• 12:29 n/f piece on sev and voldemort today. snapeartcontest and letter home for sev. siblings and birth for john. charloft for both (and gellert?) #
• 12:40 @bardsong are you looking for people to review books? we prolly have some different tastes, but some the same too. *smiles* #

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• 13:47 @miss_primavera Some of us here like 'chilling' so I will check out the song as soon as I may. #
• 08:09 @miss_primavera Doctor Watson is adorable. And I still want a bunny. I remember setting up my aethereal bunny using the interactive bun. <3 #

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• 06:49 @miss_primavera Aw, happy times! Dinosaur BBQ? Wow. #

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